XIEOUYANG Shamelessly Attempts 75 Again!

Is this the year that I will finally be able to meet the 75 book mark, before being expelled forever? I'll give it a try mostly because I enjoy reading many of the posts and learn about new authors and titles that could be of interest to me.

CURRENTLY READING:

Non-fiction:
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville ...this will be a year-long read.
The Causes of the Economic Crisis by Ludwig von Mises...reading of a MOOC course on the Great Depression
Americans in Paris edited by Adam Gopnik...a most interesting series of letters, articles, excerpts, etc. written by Americans who've lived or visited Paris over the last 230 years. I like to read one essay every two or three days and slowly enjoy them.
Malicious Gossip by Khushwant Singh ...a selection of essays and newspaper articles written by Singh, unquestionable the most popular Indian author of the last century (or today?)
The Landmark Thucydides, also another year-long reading.

Fiction:
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, I read her book The Namesake a couple of years ago and found Her to be a very good writer who conveyed the sentimental (and other types) struggles that immigrants go through.

Historical Novels:
Reading the series of 46 novels called Episodios Nacionales by the Spanish 19th century writer Benito Perez Galdos.

BOOKS READ SO FAR:

January 2015
1. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walker
2. The Tyranny of Silence by Flemming Rose
3. White Silence by Jack London

February 2015
4. The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki
5. The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri Murari
6. The Sense of Ending by Julian Barnes
7. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
8. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. Babylon Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald
10. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
11. My Fantoms by Theophile Gautier
12. The Only Problem by Muriel Spark
13. Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
14. The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark

March 2015
15. The Queen's Necklace by Antal Szerb
16. The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
17. Dead Wake by Erik Larson
18. The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb
19. Oliver VII by Antal Szerb
20. His New Mittens by Stephen Crane, a short story.
21. Love in a Bottle by Antal Szerb, this is a collection of short stories by Szerb. I am reading them sequentially.
22. Fear by Stefan Zweig
23. Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark

April 2015
24. From Here to Eternity by James Jones
25. Nathan Hale- The Life and Death of America's First Spy by M. William Phelps
26. A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark
27. Trafalgar by Benito Perez Galdos
28. El Sí de las Niñas by Leandro Fernández de Moratín
29. La Corte de Carlos IV by Benito Perez Galdos
30. El 19 de Marzo y el 2 de Mayo by Benito Perez Galdos

May 2015
31. Bailen by Benito Perez Galdos
32. Napoleon en Chamartin by Benito Perez Galdos
33. Zaragoza by Benito Perez Galdos
34. Gerona by Benito Perez Galdos
35. Cadiz by Benito Perez Galdos
36. The Natural by Bernard Malamud
37. Ideas of Heaven by Joan Silber
38. Juan Martin el Empecinado by Benito Perez Galdos
39. La Batalla de los Arapiles by Benito Perez Galdos
40. El Equipaje de Don Jose by Benito Perez Galdos

June 2015
41. Memorias de un Cortesano de 1815 by Benito Perez Galdos
42. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
43. La Segunda Casaca by Benito Perez Galdos
44. A Psychological Shipwreck by Ambrose Pierce
45. El Grande Oriente by Benito Perez Galdos
46. The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevski
47. El 7 de Julio by Benito Perez Galdos
48. Los Cien Mil Hijos de San Luis by Benito Perez Galdos
49. Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano

July 2015

August 2015
50. The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee

September 2015
51. Mort D'Urban by J. F. Powers

October 2015
52. All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
53. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
54. I Am Charlotte Simmons by Thomas Wolfe
55. Bonfire of the Vanities by Thomas Wolfe

November 2015
56. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
57. Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon
58. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

December 2015
59. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
60. The Man who walked through walls by Marcel Ayme
61. The Spectre of Alexander Wolf by Gaito Gazdanov

Let me be the first to welcome you back for another challenging year, Manuel! Good luck!

Welcome back! We've never pitched anybody out yet... :)

Hi, Manuel! Happy New Year!

Yay! Good to see you again! That's some seriously heavy reading. I look forward to hearing about these books.

Book #1 - Beauttiful Ruins by Jess Walter

An assignment for the local library fiction readers group that turned out much better than I expected. Especially after looking at the cheesy looking book cover (I have yet to figure out how to attach images to LT posts so you can see it).

It's a romantic humorous novel, set in Italy, Hollywood, Edinburgh, Idaho, Idaho?, and a couple of other cities. The actor Richard Burton plays a role, a drunken one as expected, but Elizabeth is only mentioned by name. The story starts with a minor actress who's been impregnated by Richard (you don't say!) but has been convinced that she is dying of cancer. Burton and the movie director Michale Deane, who are filming the movie Cleopatra in Rome, found this small impoverished port village that nobody cares to visit, and send the actress there telling her that Richard will be coming soon, so she will be sent to a cancer specialist in Switzerland. She stays at the only hotel in the village, curiously named Hotel Adequate View, run by the young Italian Pasquale Tursi. A young American with dreams of being a writer also stays in the hotel, Alvin Bender is his name. He visits once a year for a couple of weeks to write his novel.

From there, the story develops in several directions following key events in the lives of the main characters. The novel jumps back and forth in time between April 1962 and the present, that is 40-50 years later. It has a number of funny scenes throughout that keep the reader motivated to continue reading. Such as the one about Pasquale building a tennis court up in the craggy mountain behind the village. He's been clearing the rocks and trying to get the surface flat so it can be used to play tennis. The view from there is gorgeous but the court will extend to the precipice- Pasquale had visions of two players fielding the ball back and forth in sheer joy. However, he never thought that every time one of them missed, the ball would plunge into the ocean. Adding a screen to prevent balls from being lost would destroy the view.

The characters, however, are pretty stereotypical. The Italian family with many children, autocratic father. The self-absorbed movie actors and actresses. The temperamental young Italians. Etc. etc. Nonetheless, I think it's worth reading for the pure enjoyment of it.

Book #2 - The Tyranny of Silence by Flemming Rose

A very timely book given the tragic events in Paris recently. This book is a strong defense of freedom of speech by the newspaper editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and was instrumental in publishing the so-called Mohammed cartoons that led to violence and death throughout the Muslim world.
He makes a clear distinction between words and actions. Words, no matter how despicable may be, do not justify violence and much less murder. The attempt to reverse the blame and make victims of the murderers who react violently to what someone say is not the right moral attitude. He discusses tolerance and freedom of speech and in a world that is becoming more multicultural it's imperative that freedom of speech be maintained. Punishments for expressing one's views, no matter how offensive may be, are not warranted.
Censorship and political correctness, particularly the latter, are threats to freedom of speech. Under the guise of tolerance, governments are placing constraints on freedom of speech.
He also brings up the interesting point that religious groups, particularly Muslims that are the most violent, can not impose their rules in Western societies that cherish and respect individuals and their freedoms.
Does satire, such as the Mohammed cartoons, justify murder? Somehow many in the world remain silent in the face of these crimes; but they may oppose capital punishment and torture very vociferously. Right now the reaction to the Paris murders is one of sympathy for the victims, rightly so, but very little is said about the ones who caused the murders. There will probably be a deep examination to try to find the roots of why they committed such horrendous crimes- trying to avoid saying that it was their intolerant religious beliefs the ones that drive them to such actions.
Rose clearly makes the point in the book that he is not a Muslim hater, he only wants to bring forth the fact that intimidation and threats are eroding human freedoms. This is particularly important in Western countries where freedom is the foundation of the cultures. For instance, we in the United States are cognizant of the importance of the first amendment and most of us know that this is a vital part of the country's constitution.

>8 xieouyang: Cheesy?!!! Manuel! The cover is the reason I purchased the book! LoL Your review is encouraging in that there is a good story between the covers. I'll read it, one of these days, till then it's mingling with other lonely books on my shelf.

>9 xieouyang: Yes, timely book indeed! I fear that many people in the US are not even aware of the outrageous attack on the rights that free countries share.

Lynda, I have not been able to find your thread...do you have one this year?

Here tis http://www.librarything.com/topic/185475

also this is a pretty nifty link to all 75ers http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2015Threadbook

Book #3 - White Silence by Jack London

A short story taken from his Klondike Tales, adventures during the Alaska gold rush. For some reason I enjoy reading these stories, that are appropriate for a Winter, even though they always end tragically. In fact, most of the story is tragic- in this case two white guys and an Indian woman married to one of them.
They are caught in freezing weather, with more than 200 miles to go to the nearest settlement, and running very short on supplies. The dogs are getting snarly and because they are also very hungry are almost attacking their owners. So, at one point while they are slowly moving a large tree falls on one of them, the Indian woman's husband. It doesn't kill him but it would have been better if it had- his back is broken, broken bones, internal bleeding probably, nearly unconscious. They have to either wait till he dies or release his pain by shooting him. In the end they tie his body to some trees so that he is catapulted into the white silence. Pretty horrible ending. A reminder of how brutal nature was then, and still is today.

Book #4 - The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki
I picked this book at Half Price Books in Milwaukee- a favorite place to buy books. The title intrigued me, even though I had never heard of the author, plus the fact that it's one of the Everyman's Library titles, that tend generally to be good stories worthwhile reading.
The book was thoroughly enjoyable; so much so that I am going to look for other of Tanizaki's works. Tanizaki does excellent description of people and their character, and spends as much time on conversations and descriptions of places, events and surroundings as on the thinking of characters. The moral dilemmas they go through when faced with different situations.
The story hinges primarily around three of the four sisters, two of who are married and the youngest two waiting to be married. Tradition and appearances loom large throughout the novel. For instance, the youngest one can't marry until her elder sister does so. I guess at that time, in the 1930s Japan, there was a protocol in the order in which people got married. The older taking precedence over the younger- this goes along with the tradition of respect for the elders. The dynamics and tension in the novel arise because the youngest one, Taeko is her name, who tends to be more free-will and less bound by tradition has a boyfriend and is waiting for the correct time to get married. Her sister, Yukiko, has to find a husband first, but she is shy and perhaps more picky in choosing a husband. So she is not 33 years old and still no husband prospects. The other two sisters, and friends, are continuously trying to find her a husband.
An interesting aspect of the tradition is that, unlike places like India where the families make the arrangements before bride and groom meet each other, the family and prospective bride or groom do investigate the family, background and character of the potential partner. Once a person is suggested as a possible husband, Yukiko's sisters and their husbands engage in finding out about the man. They may hire an investigator to put together a dosier on the person- his character, family, sources of income, blemishes in his past, etc. Once both parties are satisfied that it's a good match, they will arrange for a get-together dinner where the future bride and groom meet. At that party they personally decide whether or not it's a good match. All of this process seems a more civilized way of finding a person to marry.
Aside from the tradition aspect, the novel shows many other areas of Japanese society and family life during the years leading to the second world war.

Book #5 - The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri Murari
Another book from the local book club that I am glad I read it. Story of a girl who manages to escape from the clutches of the Taliban taking advantage of a cricket tournament to flee Afghanistan. Of course the story is much more involved than this simple sentence.
Despite the brutal treatment of women, and the lack of freedom that they have, it's shocking or perhaps admirable to see the loyalty to family and tradition from the same women. The main character, as many others, hates the Taliban and their imposing of rigid religious customs. But at the same time, she abides by traditions such as selection of a husband by her parents, regardless of whether she may like the person chosen or not. This is an interesting contrast to the Japanese practice, at least during the last century, of finding a compatible husband; giving the young woman the option of marrying the person or not.
Aside from this issue, as expected, the novel deals with depressing issues for women such as having to wear a burka whenever they go outside; always to be accompanied by a male relative; not to talk unless they are spoken to; etc. etc. And this, as we know, is still happening in this more enlightened 21st century.

Book #6 - The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

The 2011 winner of the Man-Booker prize is a brief novel; a novel that felt sometimes like an essay (in the classic sense of essay as in Michel de Montaigne.) While it traces the life of Tony Webster through his thinking and reminiscences as he grows up from adolescence to old age, it is also a continuous self-evaluation of his actions and his relationships with others. His relationships with three other boys when in school (Adrian, Colin and Alex) are mostly about conversations discussing topics typical of teens- parents, girls, politics, life, death, etc. and with one young girl, Veronica. She is his girl for a while but then she leaves him for Adrian, who she marries. His reaction to this is rather childish and writes an extremely insulting letter to Adrian; Tony, in old age, regrets having done so.
We see him later in old age, after having married and divorced Margaret with whom he has a daughter. But in his later years he reconnects with Veronica and this does not turn out well at all. His rude behavior then, and his lack of self-knowledge and understanding now, are apparent to him.
But throughout the novel there is a constant self-examination of his life and of his motives.
Unlike many other novels I read, I found this one so engrossing that I read it from beginning to end without interruptions.

Book #7 - Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

I've had this book for a few years now, and I've been wanting to read it for as long. What is Siddhartha? The name of the main character of this story; a mixture of Eastern mysticism with some Western sprituality. Mostly is Eastern (Hindu) of a man's search for self. He goes through all human experiences, ranging from rejection of all worldly goods and pleasures where he reaches the zenith when he meets the live Buddha and exchanges words with him; to a life of pleasures and sexual when he meets a most beautiful woman who gives herself to him; to engaging in merchant activities to become wealthy and owner of many things; to end pretty much where he started with nothing but only the realization that he has reached self-knowledge.

>17 xieouyang: That one's been on my To Read list for a long time, too...

Book #8 - Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

After reading this novel I am convinced that Scott Fitzgerald is definitely a fine writer- who should be known more for his total oeuvre than just The Great Gatsby. I also read recently his short story Babylon Revisited that, in fact, reminded me that I should read Tender is the Night.

In this story, apparently semi-autobiographical, we follow the lives of an American psychologist working in Switzerland, Dick Diver, and one of his patients, the wealthy heiress Nicole Warren, who eventually marry each other. A young actress, Rosemary Hoyt, comes into the picture and begins to cause the estrangement between Dick and Nicole. We see how his propensity to drink to excess and somewhat dissipated lifestyle begins the slow decline of his relationship to Nicole and of their marriage. The story does not have a happy ending, like most of the Fitzgerald stories I have read, Dick is bouncing from one town to another back in the states, working as a doctor. Nicole has married to Tommy Barban, who she loves now, and appears to have a happy life- although there are signs of longing and regret for her failed marriage to Dick.

Book #9. Babylon Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Book #10. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

I remember seeing the movie The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie about 15-20 years ago when it came out. But that's not the reason I ended up reading the novel upon which the movie is based. No, the novel is one of four novels in the book I purchased for the next library club asssignment- The Girls of Slender Means by the same author, naturally. After finishing it I only thought why I didn't read it before, Muriel Spark is a fine writer indeed.

It's a tale about a somewhat controversial teacher in an all-girls school. She prides herself in selecting a handful of girls that she thinks most promising and educates them in her own way, to the consternation of the administration. Her way is mostly of ignoring the standard texts and techniques, and instructs the girls on her life experiences, her travels, her dreams, etc. The girls chosen become better thinkers that way. And the administrators can't find fault to fire Miss Brodie, and the school principal tries to coerce or convince some of the girls to tell on Miss Brodie, so she can be dismissed. But Miss Brodie manages to persuade the girls to remain loyal to her, until the end when after they are older one of them, the one Miss Brodie least expects to do so, violates her confidence and betrays her.

Throughout the story, of course, there are a lot incidents and adventures. The girls are immersed with Miss Brodie. Also throughout the novel there is a lot of wonderful writing. Muriel Spark's sentences are something to be enjoyed. No wonder she is still seen as a fine writer- her book (or books I hope) can be definitely called great literature.

Book #11. My Fantoms by Theophile Gautier

This book is a compilation of seven short stories written by Gautier throughout his life- I think that for most of them this is the first English translation from the original French. The common thread running through them is that they deal with the afterlife. The stories have a feeling of being gothic, although not fully so. Also, a soft eroticism runs through them. But most are phantasmagoric and demonic, with the devil playing a key role in many of them.
Curiously, at least to me, was the last story's subject. It is a biography of Gautier's best friend, the French writer Gerard de Nerval. The latter's suicide makes this biography also seem other-natural.

Book #12. The Only Problem by Muriel Spark

This is another short novel by Spark in the book part of the series Everyman's Library. I do like this series- the books are well made, well edited, in easy to handle size, and also reasonably priced.

This is a somewhat convoluted story, but well worth reading I thought. Although there are crimes involved, it's not really a "crime" novel. It's rather a humorous one. The main character, one Harvey Gotham, has inherited millions from an uncle and retires to a house in the French countryside to write his book. He is writing a book on the Book of Job. There is a funny similarity between Job, his sufferings and not knowing why they are inflicted upon him, and Harvey.
I don't want to recount here the story, but I want to say that I am highly impressed by Murlel Spark's writing style. It's very clear, carries the story very well, and has a certain beauty in it.

I would recommend her highly.

Book #13. Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb

Why does one purchase a book, a certain book? A large number of reasons, of course, and no need to enumerate them since everybody has his/her own reasons for doing so. In my case, for this book, it was the publisher, Pushkin Press. I purchased last year a collection of short stories by Stefan zweig issued by the same publisher. Since I like Zweig's writings, this led me to Pushkin Press's website where I saw the reference to "Kings in Exile," a compilation of five novels by Szerb, Journey of Moonlight being one of them. I ordered them through Amazon but took nearly three weeks to get them, since they were sent from England.

Anyway, Journey by Moonlight is one of those novels that, for me, once I finish it I want to go back to the beginning and read it again. It is a delightful novel that covers all ranges of human emotions, that is at the same time humorous and sad, of friendships and obsessions, of misguided loyalties and sacrifices- sacrifices for love, for lust, and material gains. Envy and jealousy from presumably one's friends.

All in all it's an admirable novel. Well written in prose that is fluid and smooth- easy to read but at the same it has a lot of depth.

Book #14. The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark

This is a weird story. Weird because its plot develops in a totally unexpected way; weird because the principal character acts in a weird way, unusual and unsuspected that is.

The story begins with Lise, the main character, in a store talking to a sales girl about a dress she wants to buy. The dress she likes is a bright colored dress. It's just not bright, it is "patterned with green and purple squares on a white background, with blue spots within the green squares, cyclamen spots within the purple." But the salesgirl tells her its stainless and Lise refuses the dress, despite her liking it, because she eats properly and doesn't spill things. She goes to another store and finds an equally hideous colored dress and a coat that even the clerk says the dress and the coat do not go together. That doesn't stop Lise, she buys them both. This is the beginning of the weirdness in the story.

The story continues on this vein. Lise is going on a vacation and everything she does is only to attract attention and to make sure that people remind her doing strange things. She makes sure to cause trouble while waiting to get her airplane ticket. She makes trouble on the plane by making strange comments to her fellow travelers. Makes arrangements to meet later on the person seating next to her. When she arrives, she goes from one strange incident to another, all along causing consternation and keeping people wondering about her.

But all this is a plan on her part. To die in a dramatic way, getting killed with a knife by a person who she directs how to do it. Very weird story indeed.

This is the third of Spark's novels I read, and it's definitely not like the other two. Although I think I start to see a pattern in her novels. The principal characters of the novels are distinguished from the others by their idiosyncratic behavior perhaps.

Book #15. The Queen's Necklace by Antal Szerb

Not knowing much about Antal Szerb previously, this topic in this book came as a surprise. I was expecting another novel, based on the famous necklace incident during pre-revolutionary France. But, instead, I found to my delight that this is a history book. It's not a historical novel, mixture of fact and fiction. It's a true historical relation of the event. However, as Szerb himself points out, it's not a scholastic work of history but, rather, an entertaining narrative of the events. He is very clear at the outset, in the Preface by the Author, that he is writing "real history, because it eschews any kind of novelistic embellishment and amplification," and does not bring any new insights. He wants to provide a viewpoint that brings forth not only the story of the necklace, but also the characters and events that led to the French revolution.

It is a truly enjoyable story to read. Szerb puts forth all the intrigues and jealousies prevalent among the aristocracy at that time. Szerb deals with the scandal in a thorough manner.

Book #16. The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

The story revolves around the lives of a group of girls, mostly poor, who reside in a dormitory designed for such girls in London. The girls dormitory, for girls under 30 who are of "slender means," goes by the name of "The May of Teck Club" with the purpose of the "Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means Under the Age of Thirty."
The story is recollections about the time right after the war when two major events happened. One is the killing of one Nicholas Farringdon who was doing missionary work in Haiti. The other is the explosion of an undiscovered bomb in the garden of the club, that destroys the building, injures several girls, and kills one of the.

Between these events, we learn about the lives of a few of the girls in the Club. How they survive and get along amidst the deprivations right at the end of the war.

A delightful part of the novel are the recitations and quotes from poetry. One of the girls living in the Club is one who is teaching proper elocution to some of the girls. And she uses poetry from Coleridge, Poe, Wordsworth, Shakespeare's sonnets, etc. Spark brings lines from a poem to reflect correctly the sentiment within the story.

Book #17. Dead Wake by Erik Larson

On this year, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland, we may expect to see other books on the same subject. I chose this one, among two being reviewed simultaneously, because it seemed to be the most compelling to read.

It is an engrossing tale, the torpedoing of a merchant ship full of civilian passengers, and its subsequent tragic sinking bringing to death over 1,000 innocent souls. Larson provides vivid descriptions of a number of the passengers of the Lusitania, as they prepare to go on that fateful trip. He conveys a humane picture of Captain Turner, who was commanding the Lusitania and behaved honorably at its sinking. Also, he has a balanced view of Captain Lieutenant Schwieger who commanded the submarine U-20 (the "U" stands for "unterseeboot" under-sea-boat)

At the same time, it's a terrible tale. The cold-blooded murdering of civilians for the sake of achieving "tonnage" sunk to gain a medal, by Schwieger, is inexcusable. Despite Larson indicating that Schwieger was impacted by the severity of his action, he continued torpedoing other merchant ships. Also, not fully blameless, are the British intelligence services who were aware of the submarine being in the neighborhood where Lusitania was going to pass, and yet did not warn the ship or its own destroyers, for fear that doing so would alert the German military that the British had broken the German code and were intercepting messages. The British intelligence service, and its leaders, were hoping that the sinking of neutral American ships would bring the Americans to the war, despite the reluctance of President Wilson and the general opposition to the war by a majority of the American public.

Finally, one feels for Captain Turner who the British navy, and Winston Churchill in particular, tried to blame for the sinking of the Lusitania. According to their actions during the inquest afterwards, they blamed Turner for not taking a more active role in evading the U-20, ignoring the fact that it was a torpedo and Schwieger to blame.

All in all, it's a good read, if you are into this sort of thing. The human suffering is heartbreaking and Larson's writing makes it come alive.

Wow, look at you! Looks like you're well on your way to 75!
I think Larson is a wonderful writer and Dead Wake is definitely on my wish list but till then I have another Larson on my book shelf, Thunderstruck.
So no rush to add another to my long list of To Be Reads.

Hi Lynda, good to hear from you. I've been reading some of the comments on LT but other things are keeping me away. Thanks for the comment and I definitely hope to make 75 this year.

Book #18. The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb

Another novel by this Hungarian writer, most famous for his novel Journey by Moonlight. This novel, that will appeal mostly to people who like Gothic/Romance mysteries, is Szerb's first full length novel. It's a mixture of a variety of literature types; it's a gothic, romance, mystery, crime novel all in one. It's about a young Hungarian philosophy doctor who meets an English earl. The earl invites the young man to his estate in Wales (I think so that Szerb can use a lot of those unpronounceable Welsh words) where a lot of mysterious incidents begin to happen- not necessarily in the estate itself, but around the life of the Earl and his relatives.

The novel is fast moving and deals also with a lot of mysticism and spiritualism (bringing Masons and Rosicrucians into the story) and other crazy beliefs.

This is the third of Szerb's novels that I've read so far (I purchased a set of five published by Pushkin Press) and I am pleased with them so far. Two more to go now.

Book #19. Oliver VII by Antal Szerb

This is the last novel that Szerb wrote, before his brutal death at a concentration camp near Balf, Hungary, in 1945.

Sadly, it's a very humorous novel that displays Szerb sense of humanity. As in his other novels (the ones I've read), he deals with issues of existence and purpose of humans. He addresses responsibility and duty that individual have to their origins and position in this world. All this within, as I said a very jocular style.

The story is about the king of the mythical Alturia, Oliver VII, who is not happy with his existence as king. Alturia is nearly broke and he is in the process of selling the major resources of the kingdom, its wine and sardines, to Coltor, a rich man from the country to the north, properly called Norland. King Oliver is not pleased with the situation, and stages a revolution and coup to depose himself; he flees the country. Only one of his loyal subjects travels with him. They go to Venice where he meets some swindlers who, not knowing that he is the former king, arrange for him to impersonate himself as king. After many girations and events, such as the plot to sell a fake Titian payment to a rich American, who turned out to be the owner of a gallery in New York named "The Titian Gallery," Oliver ends up selling the wine and sardine rights to Coltor, but with the proviso that the sale would benefit the poor of Alturia (this is what bothered him before, the neglect of the poor, but he didn't realize that was the problem).

All in all this is a good read and a very funny novel.

Book #21. Love in a Bottle by Antal Szerb

This is a collection of short stories by Szerb. Three I've read so far are listed below. So far, they are interesting but not of the same quality as his larger writings, such as Journey to Moonlight which so far was the best, and Oliver VII, as well as The Queen's Necklace.

Ajondak's Betrothal.

The White Magus.

The Tyrant.

Book #22. Fear by Stefan Zweig

Zweig has become one of my favorite authors. Underneath a simple plot, or at least a plot that is not overly complicated, he deals deeply with the human emotions and moral actions resulting from the plot. In this case, the case of a middle class woman named Irene in early 20th century Vienna (I assume it's in Vienna since Zweig lived in Austria), who engages in an adulterous affair with a young pianist. She risks her life of comfort with her husband and two children. All is well, she is having the affair visiting the boyfriend once a week, with nobody suspecting anything. That is until a woman accosts her and begins blackmail her. Irene's reaction is fear. This falling into the maelstrom of fear starts in after only a couple of pages into the novel. The rest of the brief novel, only about 100 pages in the Pushkin edition that I just purchased, explores this fear and the anxiety that it brings Irene, to the verge of suicide.

But I won't tell much else, since, at least to me, not knowing how the novel develops is part of the enjoyment. I would highly recommend this novel- and others by Zweig for that matter.

I loved Fear as well. Nice review, Manuel.

Hy Darryl, why I am not surprised you've read Fear. I don't think I'll ever see the day I pick a book that you haven't read. And much more remarkable, that you don't forget.

Book #23. Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark

After reading Spark's The Girls of Slender Means as a library book club assignment, and reading the other three novels in the Everyman's Library book that I had purchased, I fell in love with her writing. I've purchased several others of her books, this is one of them of course.

She takes on a real criminal incident in England in the 1970s. The true part of the story is the brutal murder by one Earl of Lucan of the family's nanny and his disapperance since then. Apparently Lucan wanted to kill his wife presumably to recover the property and money he had lost in her divorce from him. Lucan himself was a totally despicable man. An aristocrat by birth with few financial resources, but who managed to live high on debts and help from his friends.

Spark takes this story, and creates an intricate novel of intrigue, duplicitous behavior, invents a new stack of characters some of who are searching for the Earl, and she provides a suitable and gruesome ending for the Earl. The Earl himself has not remorse for the killing; Spark paints him as an aristocrat who feels is not responsible to the world. A real nasty character. But in the end gets his punishment in a sense.

Book #24. From Here to Eternity by James Jones

I've been out of LT for the last couple of weeks (traveling outside the country). During this time I attempted to finish reading this novel, an assignment from the local book club. It turns out that I could only read on the plane there and back, part of the time.

This novel turned out to be quite good, after all, despite or perhaps because of its length. At 800 pages it's quite a story. The story, as probably most people know because they've seen the movie, revolves around the lives of a group of soldiers stationed in Hawaii the months (or weeks) before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It's a love story, or several love stories, and a story about friendships among soldiers. The familiarity and loyalty among them, along with the brutality that they sometimes inflict upon each other, makes this a very human and enthralling story. Several of the characters have a death wish that may be caused by the isolation and perhaps dehumanization of military life. One of the main characters, if not the principal one, Prewitt, acts often in ways that contradict possible success in his life. Seems as if he continuously takes the worst possible outcome on purpose. Another character, Milt Warden, a Sargent in the unit also sacrifices a possible love and promotion to stay in his place- it seems odd to make those choices.

But there is some beautiful and moving writing in the novel, despite its military environs. One particularly moving scene is when Prewitt, who was an accomplished bugler, plays taps in such a way that all the men in the battalion listen silently because the notes get to the bottom of their heart.

In the end, I am glad that I have been exposed to this novel.

Nice review of From Here to Eternity, Manuel.

Thanks Darryl

Book #25. Nathan Hale- The Life and Death of America's First Spy by M. William Phelps

I think I am on my way to finally reach the 75 book goal-- first time!

This is an Early Reviewer copy that I received a couple of days ago and, boy, I wasted two days reading this book. You've never heard of Nathan Hale, it's OK, you haven't missed anything. He, like this book, led a pretty boring life and were it not for the fact that he attempted to do some spying for General Washington, at which he failed and was caught and hung, he would not be remembered at all.

The author, that is not a historian but a crime writer, seems to be attempting to write a scholarly history. Thus he researched his story extensively (by the number of pages of notes) and used quotations extensively throughout the book. In fact, the story sometimes seems like a series of quotations that are connected by one or two words that the author contributes.

I found it extremely annoying to read, when you run into quotations every 2-3 lines. And, to make things worse, some of the quotations are ludicrously stupid. He has many of them of two or three words, but not clever or wise words, just mundane comments.

My only recommendation is to stay away from this book- unless you are into suffering.

Book #26. A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark

Another one of Spark's very well written and interesting novels. This one hinges around a 29-year old woman who is in publishing, and living in a rooming house. She rents a room and deals with the other people living there, who are an interesting cast of characters. The woman, named Nancy but initially is known as Mrs. Hawkins, is a very strong person, of good character and morals. A person that because of her heft gives people the feeling that she can be trusted and confide in her and ask her for advice. Advice that she handles readily and wisely.

But the value is in Spark's writing that is very smooth and witty. Also she displays a great sense of humor. She's become one of my favorite writers.

Book #27. Trafalgar by Benito Perez Galdos

Perez Galdos is one of the most prolific Spanish authors, writing in the late 19th, early 20th Century. This novel, Trafalgar, is the first one of a series of 46 historical novels that he wrote about Spain's history at the end of the 18th and first half of the 19th Century. Although I have read the series before, they are novels that I find attractive and enjoyable so I decided to go through the cycle again.

The historical aspect of Trafalgar is the naval battle of the combined forces of Spain and France against England. This is the battle where Admiral Nelson, commanding the English forces, lost his life. In the same battle, the Spanish commander Churruca also died, but the allied Spanish-French forces were under the command of a French Admiral.

Of course, Perez Galdos narrative follows the life of an imaginary young man, named Gabriel, who participates in the battle. Gabriel will be the hero of the first ten novels; we'll follow him as he progresses from a young orphan working as a servant to a semi-retired naval man to being a successful young man who acquires wealth.

Book #28. El Sí de las Niñas by Leandro Fernández de Moratín

I just read this play because it was referenced in the second Perez Galdos novel I am reading. This is a comedy, not the best I've read, that deals with a lady, Doña Irene, who is arranging to marry her 16 year old daughter Paquita to a wealthy, 59 year old man, Don Diego. The old man is in love with they young lady, he thinks, and her mother is happy for the arrangement because it will ensure her leaving behind her life of privacy. But, unbeknownst to them, Paquita is in love with a young man, Don Carlos, who happens to be Don Diego's nephew.

Well, you know the rest of the story and how it's resolved. Don Diego realizes that it's foolish of him to try to marry Paquita, who is in love with someone else. He agrees to his nephew's marriage with Paquita, and he is happy because he won't be lonely in his old age. Her mother is also happy because her daughter's marriage will still assure her live will not be one of poverty.

Book #29. La Corte de Carlos IV by Benito Perez Galdos (The Court of Charles IV)

This is the second novel of the historical Episodios Nacionales (National Episodes) of Perez Galdos.

In this series, the author called it the First Series, of 10 novels, he depicts Spain's Napoleonic history through the eyes of a single character- Gabriel. He places this fellow at the center, or periphery sometimes, or key events in that history. At the same time, we observe his growth from a young inexperienced, naive teenager to an accomplished young man. But this later.

An interest portion of this novel is the discussion of the intrigues that were taking place in the court at the time. A group of plotters that were siding with the prince heir in their attempt to depose his father the king Carlos IV see their efforts defeated. Also we learn how at that time plays and comedies were shown not only in theaters, but also in private homes. Thus a big chunk of the novel is spent around staging a Spanish version of Othello in the private residence of a Duke.

The value of these novels is obviously on their historical setting. But also on the depiction of life, both for the aristocracy as well as the common people, in the Spain at that time.

Book #30. El 19 de Marzo y el 2 de Mayo by Benito Perez Galdos {the 19th of March and the 2nd of May}

This is the third of the First Series of historical novels.

These two dates have significance in Spain's war of independence from Napoleonic France. The first of them marks a battle in the city of Aranjuez, where the house of the Prime Minister Godoy is sacked and destroyed, with Godoy himself running away. The second is the date of a battle in Madrid itself, where the French forces massacred a large number of Spanish people, both men and women, who were involved in demonstrations against the French invasion.

Perez Galdos brings the principal characters of these series (Gabriel, Ines, etc.) to be in the middle of both events. Contrary to assumptions, Ines turns out to be the illegitimate daughter of a marquise, unbeknownst to her of course. A presumed uncle and aunt of her who are aware of her lineage, come to claim her so she can live with them. They turn out to be a couple of avaricious creatures. Of course Gabriel, who is in love with Ines, tries to rescue her from the clutches of the uncles. He does but they are all trapped in the middle of the Madrid insurrection and battle. They are all made prisoners of the French, but Ines is freed before they are shot. Both Gabriel and her uncle father Celestino are apparently shot by the French. So, we are left hanging waiting eagerly to read the next installment.

Perez Galdos is a terrific writer who paints scenes of violence, of sentimentality, of quietness, with great feeling. His description of battle scenes make the reader feel like he is there. Additionally, he has a very extensive vocabulary and seems to always use the appropriate words.

Next to read is the fourth novel in this series, Bailen

By the way, Bailen is the name of the next novel but LT's Touchstones, smart as it is, takes the proper noun Bailen, name of a town, to be the verb bailen, to dance. Thus the word Bailen links to a novel called The Slave Dancer. I guess this is one of the dumb things that come out of artificial intelligence.

Book #31. Bailen by Benito Perez Galdos

Bailen is the name of a town in Southern Spain where the French Napoleonic forces suffered a defeat from the Spanish. Perez Galdos uses this opportunity to move the story forward, both of the French attempt to bring Spain under Napoleon's empirse, but also of the principal character, Gabriel, moving up in the world.

Here Perez Galdos brings the potential husband for Ines, the illegitimate heiress of Spain's most powerful family, to be of another noble family. Unfortunately, or perhaps accurately, the heir of this family, a Don Diego count of Rumblar, is more or less an idiot with very little intelligence. But plans to get them married, that make Don Diego a happy man, cause conternation on Ines. Although we really don't hear much of her opinions.

Perez Galdos brings forth the haughty character of Spanish nobles and their presumed superiority to others, traits that are disgusting especially in the way they treat others, their inferiors.

Book #32. Napoleon en Chamartin by Benito Perez Galdos

Next novel covers the surrender of Spain's government to Napoleon, and the installation of his brother Joseph to the Spanish throne (still under discussion in this novel). After a few battles in which either the Spanish or the French won, Napoleon brought about 200 thousand troops and he himself fought in Madrid and defeated the Spanish. So much for the historical part.

On the fiction side, we follow the adventures of young Gabriel and his beloved Ines. But Ines turns out to be the heir of one of the most noble families in Spain, and is forced to move and live with that family. Her (illegitimate) mother does not recognize her, to maintain her reputation since she is a Countess, but they pretend that her mother's cousin is Ines father- I guess it was easier for a man to claim an illegitimate child than a woman. So now Ines, with her newly gained nobility and wealth, is out of reach of the poor Gabriel. He recognizes it and, moreover, the Countess plots to have Gabriel removed from Madrid. The plot fails but Gabriel is captured and is banished to France as a prisoner of Napoleon.

There is a lot more, of course, because Perez Galdos novels are rich in characters and stories.

Greetings Manuel! I've just wishlisted the Szerb's, he would be a new to me author. Are the Galdos books translated into English?

Hi Lynda, no, the Perez Galdos historical novels are not translated. Only his "regular" novels have been translated- I don't know which ones but I've seen some in Abebooks and Amazon. I guess it's because the historical ones are too topical and narrow focus.

Book #33. Zaragoza by Benito Perez Galdos

Continuing reading the series of Spanish national stories I just completed Zaragoza that deals with the final siege of the city by the Napoleonic French troops on their way to conquer Portugal. Although the city went through three separate sieges over two years, Perez Galdos concentrates on the third and final one, when the city finally surrenders to the French. Shocking are the descriptions of house to house battles, the thousands of people killed on both sides, the destruction of all buildings, the pest that infects the city from all the unburied. In short, not an easy read but telling nonetheless, since it tells in detail the brutality of war and the senselessness of achieving what seem like pyrrhic victories.

On the human side, the novel follows the adventures, if we can call them that, of Gabriel, the principal characters in this first set of ten novels. Gabriel, who had been apprehended by the French in the previous novel, managed to escape with another prisoner and finds himself in Zaragoza. But the city is in the middle of preparations for the coming onslaught of the French troops. He befriends another young man, Agustin, who happens to be the son of a wealthy landowner and leader of the city. But Agustin has fallen in love with the very beautiful Maria, (what else?) a young lady who happens to be the daughter of a miserly and avaricious guy who does not want to help anybody, and who is in fact hated and dismissed by the citizens of Zaragoza because of his money lending activities (somehow in novels and stories moneylenders are mistreated even though what they are doing is in fact helping people in need by extending them loans, but that's another topic). During the siege Maria's father is found guilty of treason and shot, Maria dies, Agustin's father is distraught because his first son has also died and Agustin himself decides to become a monk now that his love Maria is dead. Gabriel is alive but wounded and decides to leave the city.

My telling is not very good because the story is much more complicated. Perez Galdos brings forth a large number of characters in his novel, his depictions are always very clear and gives his people distinguishing characters that add a vivid dimension to the novels.

Book #34. Gerona by Benito Perez Galdos

On this novel, the author picks up the story under a different narrator. It's not Gabriel anymore, I guess it's too much coincidence to have the same character be an active participant in the location of major battles or sieges. Thus Perez Galdos invents another character, a young man this time by the name of Andresilo Marijuan. And the action, or inaction perhaps, takes place in the city of Gerona (or Girona as it's spelled in English), that is under siege by the French forces. The siege lasts over seven months and the novel depicts the hunger and privations of the people inside town. Also, he paints how people become brutalized by the privation and lose sight of common sense, much less of certain basic moral values.

This story is probably the hardest to get through, because of all the suffering and almost animalistic behavior of people who are forced to live under such circumstances. Surrounded by death and always trying to find some sustenance, many seem to lose regard for other human beings- in fact, they seem to lose their humanity. Not all of them, though, since there are many individuals who maintain their self-respect and don't lose their mind.

Book #35. Cadiz by Benito Perez Galdos

Continuing on my reading of this First Series of Galdos' historical novels, I just finished the 8th one, Cadiz.

The story gets back to the principal character of the first six novels, Gabriel Araceli, and his love Ines. Here we have a new person come to the story, an English nobleman, Lord Gray, who is extremely rich and bored with his life in England. Comes to Spain to find adventure and because he admires the Spanish character. He befriends Gabriel, or is the other way around? In any event, he likes Gabriel and becomes a usual visitor of the house of the Rumblars, where the two daughters of the countess of Rumblar live, together with Ines. Lord Gray, being an assidual visitor to the house, is thought to be after Ines, but in the end we find that it's one of the Rumblar girls who he is after. Because of the idea that he is after Ines, Gabriel hates him and wants to kill him while pretending to be his friend (this is a very convoluted story). In the end all turns out relatively well. Gabriel has a duel with Lord Gray and apparently kills the latter. The Rumblar gifl, who Lord Gray had abducted on the pretense that he would marry her, returns home to her mother. Ines is also back in the house but it's unclear what will be the resolution of her love for Gabriel.

The language that Perez Galdos uses throughout his works is rather elevated. This makes the reading pleasurable but, at the same time, it's sometimes not very believable. For instance, Lord Gray speaks in perfect Spanish, both in diction and pronunciation, something that it makes it difficult to believe since he had come to the country only a short while before.

On to the next one.

Side note. I just returned from a trip to Sicily, where I had never been before. I was on a tour with a small group of people, about 15. But one of the things I did on this trip, never done before, was blog throughout the trip. I did it for myself, to record the events, places, etc. but in the end I found it was a wonderful way of keeping a record of the trip. In fact, all the other people who were on the tour have commented that they have enjoyed the blog and are appreciative of it.

I mention this to suggest to anyone who reads this that they should try doing it. It takes time, less than an hour each day, but it's very much worthwhile. Every evening, or early the next morning, I was updating the blog.

In case you are curious, although it may not be too meaningful to you, below is a link. One piece of advice though, is for you to make sure that you take photos of yourself or appear in the photos. At the end, I found out that I had only a handful of photos where I showed, which is fine.

Here is the link: MyVisitToSicily.blogspot.com

Book #36. The Natural by Bernard Malamud

Every time I receive in the mail the next book from the Library of America collection I open the box with great expectation of what author will come to my house this time. In fact, it brings me back to the pleasures I had when through my college years, and afterwards, of getting a new Book-of-the-Month release. For some reason, I always enjoyed the surprise of finding a book by an author that I may or may not have known, but whose book I probably hadn't read before, and it would bring me more joy yet.

The latest one I received from Library of America is a collection of Malamud's writings from the 40s and 50s. A couple of novels and a bunch of short stories. The two novels are The Natural and The Assistant. I decided to read the first one, even though I do not particularly like baseball (sorry Lynda) or sportswriting either. But Malamud really brings the baseball game alive. In the story, a young promising player whose career is derailed very early by a mysterious female fan who inexplicably shoots him, finds himself living the glories he dreamed when he is in his mid-30s, after spending most of his life doing odd jobs but staying out of the game professionally. He is discovered by a scout who is going around the country seeking that next best player, and even though he is "too old" to play professionally, is totally impressed by him that convinces him to sign with a team, the Knights. Roy Hobbs, that's the players name, brings the team to almost win the pennant to go to the World Series, but fails.

Maybe I should watch Robert Redford's movie now.

I just viewed your Sicily blog. Nice photos, nice trip. Thanks. But sorry you had to wait so much!

Thanks Catarina. The "waiting" part of the tour was frustrating because the tour organizer turned out to be not a good planner. And the timing of the various rides, etc. was not thought out well. Aside from this, the trip turned out to be a lot of fun because Sicily is just a beautiful place to visit. Plus I met some wonderful people on the trip too.

Book #37. Ideas of Heaven by Joan Silber

This was a surprisingly enjoyable book. It's an assignment in the local library book club I belong, and my first thought when I got it was "oh no, a girlie book". Yes, it was a kind of girlie book but also a well written one. It contains six different short stories that are tied by a common underlying subject. The title, obviously, is a clear hint of what ties them, heaven, but the way Silber develops them and brings the stories together, so subtly, is what gives the book its value.

All the stories deal with love, sex and the spiritual or otherworld. As one reads the stories, I think sequentially is best, one starts to see the connections between them. In some of them the connections are very clear and concrete, such as the Duncan Fischbach dance instructor in The Shape who shows up as the gay person who is teaching diction and singing to a young man; the latter abandons Duncan who is left sort of despondent. But the favorite songs that the young man llikes to sing are poems of Gaspara Stampa that are put to music. And Gaspara Stampa is the subject of the third story, a fictional biography of the Middle Ages Italian poet Stampa. And so in this way the stories move along.

All the stories are interesting in and of themselves, and as I said they are very well written. The prose is lucid and smooth and entertaining.

Another plus of this book for me is that it introduced me to the poet Gaspara Stampa, whose poetry I did not know and now enjoy.

Book #38. Juan Martin el Empecinado by Benito Perez Galdos

The action now moves from the Southern city of Cadiz, the location of the first parliament writing a constitution, to the region of Aragon, Northeast of Madrid. The focus is on guerrilla warfare and the famous leader Juan Martin Diez, known as "el empecinado" (the obstinate, stubborn). He, and a couple of others, out of their own will decided to battle the Napoleonic forces by going to the hills and engaged in battles in what became to be known as guerrillas (literally, little wars.) Soon, they had a group of followers and together they starting fighting the French forces on their own terms. Juan Martin was a natural leader who could think strategically and tactically without having had any schooling; plus he had an instinct to know where the French troops would be heading in a given situation.

Of course, the main characters of these series, Gabriel Aracelli finds himsef joining forces with Juan Martin and has become also a prominent soldier who has won much recognition. So much that now he has won the respect of the Countess, mother of Ines the true love of Gabriel. We find in this novel that Gabriel discovers who is the father of Ines, none other than Luis Santorcaz who has been living in France many years, and is now fighting with the French. At the end of the novel, Santorcaz is able to abduct his daughter and take her with him to unknown area, to the despair of her mother and Gabriel. The novel ends with Gabriel promising to find Ines and return her to her mother.

Manuel, thanks for sharing this series of Spanish historical novels. You are really racing through them! They sound lovely. And I am glad you had a good time (mostly) in Sicily. I've never been to Europe, but I'm planning a trip to Spain in a couple of years...

You and I are just about tied for books read this year. But you are doing a great job of summing up, while I am just listing the titles. So you are way ahead of me there.

Hi Chris, I have not been spending much time on LT this year, not as much as I'd want. You can see by the fact that your comment was written 6 days ago! I am a little more involved with my consulting work, which is fine, and also I started a blog on economic issues (staying away from politics), mostly for fun.
By the way, if you are interested, I just started a class on Don Quijote on EdX, put by Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala (where I am from). The link is EdX.UFM.edu, it's a fairly long course that will go for about 20 weeks or so I believe. Check it out if you are interested.

Book #39. La Batalla de los Arapiles by Benito Perez Galdos

This is the last of the 10 novels comprising the first series of Galdos' Episodios Nacionales. Here we see the happy ending of the story- the part dealing with young Gabriel, who we saw first in Trafalgar as an orphan, fairly destitute with no good prospects for his future other than his honesty, honor, resolution and goodness of heart. In this final novel, he is now a Brigadier in the Spanish army fighting for the independence from France and its Napoleonic forces. Also, he is married to Ines, the love of his life from his early youth. He is reconciled and has become friends with her mother, the most powerful Countess Amaranta; mostly because he did several crucial favors for her along the way and helped her in her times of distress. He is also made peace with Ines's father, the wrathful and mean Luis Santorcaz who in the end is not that mean after all. Maybe he is.

The other aspect of the story is the war of independence (known to English audiences as the Peninsular War because of the aid that Britain under Wellington gave to the war in Britain's efforts to defeat Napoleon). Here the action centers on a battle that takes place in the city of Salamanca and the area around it, the Arapil hills. It's another brutal battle with the French and Spanish-English forces, one trying to keep control of the hill and the other trying to take it- with thousands of dead in both sides. But the French forces are defeated and are in a rout.

Next I'll start the ten novels making up the second series.

Book #40. El Equipaje de Don Jose by Benito Perez Galdos

This is the first novel of Perez Galdos' Second Series of novels about the Napoleonic invasion of Spain and after. The title means "The Bagagge or Luggage of Don Jose," Don Jose being Napoleon's brother who had been named King of Spain. That he was, but only for about five years during which Spain was in constant war against the invading French, until they were repelled with the aid of Wellington's British Army.

The historical portion of this novel touches on how Don Jose, the king, is trying to escape with his troops from Spain, accompanied by Spaniards who had turned for the French side. All of them taking as much wealth as possible- jewelry, furniture, paintings, etc. But the convoy is so long and the fighting around them makes it impossible for them to move fast and, in fact, the king has to run away with some of his loyal team on horseback, leaving behind most of the treasure. The latter is raided by Spanish people who happen to be around, such as farmers, etc.

On the fictional side, we find that Salvador Monsalud, a person who surfaced in one novel earlier and had turned for the French because he was very poor, with no known father and pretty much looked down by the people in his town while the French troops welcomed him. But along with the French troops trying to escape, he stops by his village and sees his former girlfriend, Genera, whose father forbid her to see Salvador- so they have to meet at night in the dark. Low and behold, another young man from town, Carlos Navarro who is also in love with Genera comes to try to see her and catches both of them talking over the fence of her house. Carlos and Salvador get into a fight and Salvador wounds Carlos, but it's only a minor wound. Salvador flees the area.

A few days later, the French troops capture Carlos's father and is going to be killed the next day. At night, Salvador comes to talk to him, feeling sorry for him. Carlos, knowing that he is going to die, has spent the time repenting for his many sins, one of which was to have taken advantage of a young girl in his youth, the product of this was none other than Salvador. He tries to tell Salvador that he is his son, but Salvador does not believe or understand it. So Salvador gives Carlos father a gun with which he kills himself in the prison cell, to avoid being hung by the French.

Finally, we see the French convoy and troops continuing to flee, Salvador is there of course. The French are suffering for lack of food and drink, so Salvador goes towards a group to beg for food and something to drink. But the group is formed by, among others, none other than Genera and Carlos. Salvador recognizes Genara and gets into a fight with Carlos, that Genara does not see. The end is that Salvador kills Carlos- not knowing that in fact he has killed his half brother.

Story is interesting and has elements of suspense. Perez Galdos' writing is very good, especially on his descriptions of people and locations. He goes into full detail of the physiognomy of his characters, so one can virtually see them. Also, he describes key personality traits very well so the characters are always well rounded and not simple one dimensional creatures.

Book #41. Memorias de un Cortesano de 1815 by Benito Perez Galdos

Title in English would be Memories (or Remembrances) of a Courtesan of 1815, my translation of course.

This is a different novel that deals with the intrigues around the court of king Ferdinand VII, after the expulsion of the Napoleonic forces from Spain. Perez Galdos deals very well with all the conversations among various government officials as they become favorites of the king, or lose favoritism. The king, who has been successful in imposing absolute monarchy, dispenses favors, titles and jobs upon some of his subjects- all depending on who is the favorite for the day, or who has the king's ear that evening.

All in all, this novel is a good reminder of the faults and weaknesses of absolutism- maybe should be obligatory reading for those who want to give the U.S. executive yet more powers, or who don't object to the way various U.S. presidents have issued executive orders that tend to bypass the normal legal processes (e.g., Congress).

Book #42. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

I was intrigued by this novel when I received an announcement from Europa publishers- it was touted as a best-seller and the first one of Ferrante's four Neapolitan novels. Moreover, since I had never heard of Ferrante, I checked her background and was further intrigued by the fact that the public does not know who she really is. She refuses to do any publicity for her books, does not do interviews, etc. Some people even think that she may be a man.

Well, I ordered the book and read it, even though my wife had told me "Nah, don't bother, you won't like it" just by hearing the description. It turns out that is a book for teen-agers I guess, about a young girl growing up in Naples. Talks about her feelings growing up, neglected, not being pretty, etc. The good parts is her depiction of the nature of Neapolitan families at that time- 50s and 60s, the relations between parents and children, parents among themselves, the imperious fathers, the young girls who grow up only to be married well hopefully and have children. Also touches a bit on the camorra- the mafia from Southern Italy, and the hold and power they had on people; although this is not mentioned explicitly, in the same way that people wouldn't talk about it at the time (or perhaps even today).

In the end, I would recommend this book- for young girls primarily. But even adults can enjoy it. Ferrante is a good writer. Now, would I buy any of the following three books? No!

Book 43. La Segunda Casaca by Benito Perez Galdos

Casaca is a word for the old military style jackets, that went down to the knees. Like the ones typically worn by Civil War officers such as General Grant. Second casaca refers to the change of government in Spain following the revolution against the absolutist regime initially imposed by the King Ferdinand VII. In 1812, the liberals (in the old, traditional meaning of the word) had rebelled and adopted a constitution establishing a congress and limiting the powers of the King. This constitution is referred as the Cadiz Constitution, in reference to the city where it was drafted. The monarchical group was able to defeat that effort and a period of total rule by the king followed, referred as absolutist since there was only one law, whatever the king said. The infamous Inquisition gained powers again.

Over the following years there was a movement to get rid of that regime, and the uncrontrolled powers it had. It was finally successful in 1820, when the King was forced to swear allegiance to the Constitution of 1812.

On the fictional side, this story follows the intrigues and actions on several characters- one of them in particular, named Pipaon, who was successful during the interval period playing both sides- for the King's party being an important part of the government and, at the same time, working with the rebels. In the end, he is able to maintain his position (something like Bill Clinton today, and his ability to always come on top)

Book #44. A Psychological Shipwreck by Ambrose Pierce

This is the second of Pierce's short stories and I think I like his style and stories. Both of them have a sense of the supernatural and seeing things in dreams. This brief story talks about a businessman who is travelling back to the U.S. from England with his business partner. On the dream part we see him deciding to take a sail boat because it'll be a slower, and more leisurely trip than the usual steamer ship. On the boat meets a young lady, the only other person on the boat since it's a cargo boat. He makes her acquaintance but then they get caught up in a storm and the boat sinks, he grabs to some planks. The next thing he is awaken by his business partner. It turns out that the partner was taking along his girlfriend but to keep appearance, she went ahead on a sail boat while he went on the steam ship. The idea is that he would get there first and wait for her in New York.
When both business partners arrive in New York they wait for days for the sail boat with the girl, that never arrives.

Book #45El Grande Oriente by Benito Perez Galdos.

Continuing on the Spanish early 19th historical novels, this one focuses on the political influences of secret societies prevalent at that time, particularly the Masons. El Grande Oriente, the Great Orient in English, was the largest and most influential masonic group at that time, particularly in France. Perez Galdos pokes fun at the silliness of the masonic rituals but at the same time highlights the numerous influential individuals who belonged to the lodge. They ranged from lower level bureaucrats to heads of administrative sections up to ministers, as well as deputies, etc. Most of them were of liberal inclinations (liberal in the traditional sense of the word) and opposed the absolute monarchy demanded by the current king of Spain, Ferdinand VII.

On the side, this novel focuses now on a character who had been in an earlier novel, Salvador Monsalud. This time he is a good man, joining the Grande Oriente masonic order to rescue a friend of his who's been put in prison. Also, he joins a second, more jocular order called the "comuneros," or common men, who practice similar rituals as the masons but in such a manner that Perez Galdos pokes fun at the whole idea of the rituals of these secret societies.

Book #46. The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevski

Although I had read this story about 10 years ago, I decided to re-read it since I saw a movie called The Dopplehanger which mentioned The Double as the source. Although the movie version I saw differed from the novel.

The gist of the story is around a civil servant named Golyadkin who is kind of paranoid, or perhaps schizophrenic. One day, a person who looks exactly like him, even using the same name, pops up and puzzles and befriends him. The second Golyadkin, referred as Golyadkin Junion in the translation by Constance Garnett that I read, is sometimes very friendly and jovial to the Senior one, but sometimes is aloof and even rude. Junior shows up with a job in the same office that Senior works, even sitting in a desk opposite his. This annoys Senior, who is confused about the double. First he is concerned that his double will act in strange ways and people will think it is him, Senior. Then he comes to befriend him and later to hate him. But all throughout we do not know whether Junior is real, or is in the imagination of Senior. It's a puzzling novel if I ever read one. I would call it absurd perhaps.

But this seems definitely a different type of novel that the other, more famous, Dostoyevski novels, such as Crime and Punishment or The Brothers Karamazov. It's worthwhile reading, nonetheless, if you want to spend some time in disbelief.

Book #47. El 7 de Julio by Benito Perez Galdos

Moving right along with the historical novel series, this one deals with the triumph of the liberals against the tyranny of the king Fernando VII. The 7th of July, title of the book, is the day when the king's forces fight against the liberals who want to restore the Constitution that was promulgated in Cadiz in 1812, and had a very short life. The king acquiesces when his troops lost the encounter and agrees with the liberal viewpoint. I am not sure what happened afterwards but I'll find out in the next novel.

Along the historical element, we have the young man Salvador Monsalud helping Soledad, the young daughter of Gil de la Cuadra who Salvador had helped get out of the king's prison in an earlier novel. Monsalud treats Soledad as his sister even though we suspect that he is in love with her. Meanwhile her father, who is ailing, wants her to marry her cousin Anatolio Gordon because his wife, Soledad's mother, had wanted the two cousins to marry. Nice to marry your blood relations. In any event, Soledad wants to go ahead with the wedding even though she does not love or perhaps like him, because that's what her father would want- ah, the good old days when children obeyed their parents, even if it was doing stupid things. But during the middle of the battle, her father dies and Anatolio comes around to break the engagement, apparently he wasn't too hot on the wedding either.

The novel ends with the hope that now that Soledad is free, she would marry Salvador. However, in the last few paragraphs Salvador escapes from the house in a carriage, where a lady is with him. Who is the lady. Suspense, oh suspense!

Book #48. Los Cien Mil Hijos de San Luis by Benito Perez Galdos

Continuing to read this series, the 16th book would be in English The Hundred Thousand Sons of St. Louis. It's a reference that was made in Spain, around the 1820s during the war to depose the King Fenando VII who opposed liberal ideas, as was referred as the absolutist- he believed in dictatorial regime. The hundred thousand sons were French soldiers sent to strengthen the power of the Spanish King against the liberals. The rationale for the French king was that Spain would be easy to manipulate and it would be dependent on France. They were able to defeat the liberals after a three year period when the latter were ruling Spain and the king was, more or less, in captivity. Note that it was during this period that the Latin American colonies gained their independence from Spain.

Book #49. Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano

This book came to my attention recently and I was intrigued by the courage of the writer. The theme is the Camorra, the system of organized criminals that dominate the city of Naples. Originally I had thought that the Sicilian Mafia was stronger but according to Saviano, but the Neapolitan Camorra is much more powerful and much more violent.

This is a shocking book. We are used to seeing the mafia of the movies, or perhaps even TV shows such as the sopranos. But there they are actors and don't seem real. This book Gomorrah, makes it real, very real. Not only the extreme violence and cruelty of the people involved, but also on the extent of involvement into many business areas, particularly in Southern Italy and Naples. One reads the book and can not be but shocked by all that goes under the control of those criminal families. Another aspect that is troublesome is the environment of fear that people in the area live under. Young people get involved with criminal activities because of the lure of making a quick buck. Honest people live in fear, a fear that forces them to be silent to what they see.

The book identifies a few courageous souls; judges and policemen that do their best to apprehend and try the guilty ones. But the Camorra continues to dominate many areas of business, not only around Naples but all over Europe. Saviano even documents the case of city of Aberdeen in the U.K., where one of the Camorra's established a branch and brought a lot of prosperity to the area. An apparent prosperity brought about by drug-dealing and other criminal activities.

The book ends with the involvement of the Camorra people into waste management, an area that they have found most lucrative. Disposal of trash such as highly toxic chemicals by falsifying documents and dumping it in areas near population is common. And they are able to ignore the law. The environmental prospects for the city and the rigon are not very positive, if what Saviano says is in fact true- but I don't have a reason not to believe him.

Unfortunately I seem to be falling behind. I had started a consulting business last year, when I retired, thinking that I'd get one or two clients and do a little bit of consulting. Well, it hasn't turned out that way and I started with another client a couple of weeks ago. Here is a press release

/a>

Unfortunately I have been quite busy lately and I have not been able to keep up with my reading plans. After I retired, about a year and a half ago, I set up a consulting business thinking that I'd be dealing with one or two clients, and not working too many hours. It hasn't worked that way-- I am getting more business than I expected. Most recently I was appointed at a trade association that implies that I will be quite busy; my reading will have to wait.

Book #50. The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee

Between some traveling and consulting work I have not been able to read much recently. In fact, I was shocked when I realized that I did not finish a single book in July, and it's almost the end of August and I can tag only this book. But it was a really good book.

The author is Indian and this is his second novel. It was in last year's shortlist for the Man-Booker prize; my daughter brought me the novel from India after spending the last 7 months there studying Tamil writings.

In this novel, Mukherjee traces the story of a family along with the impact that independence from Britain left upon Indian society. No matter how long ago they became independent, one of the characters points out that they still behave as if the British were in power. The three generations of the family, that starts well off owning several paper mills, live together in a four story house. The grandparents live on the top story, their children live on the next two stories. At the ground level are the servants and, most telling, their widowed daughter-in-law. The latter, Purba is her name, married the youngest son who wasn't much of a good person. He gets killed while trying to rape a peasant girl, so his wife is relegated to live in a storage room, and given to eat just remnants from the table. Indian caste society is profiled in the relations and rankings of the various family members.

There is continuous dissension in the family, and jealousy and envy among the brothers, their wives and the sister. There are four brothers and a sister, third in order, who never married because she was darker skinned and cross-eyed, plus aside from this very unattractive. Interesting to learn the girations that the parents go through in trying to find her a suitable husband. As the years go by, and she is getting in her 20s, they become less and less demanding and offer more gifts- but nobody takes her. She is doomed to stay with the family and creates havoc on her own.

The novel starts with a shocking and gruesome event that, unbeknownst to me, was a harbinger of the rest of the novel. Mukherjee paints the family's life and struggles along with the life and struggles of Indian social and political developments at the time, and even today. Although, hopefully, Indian society will not unravel the way in which this family ends up.

Book # 52. All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

It seems that I am falling behind already, way behind. Were it not for the library club reading group, I'd be totally at a standstill. Work, consulting work, is getting in the way. And MOOC classes over the internet. But I am enjoying these things- I guess that's good.

This book, Doerr's, turned out to be good after all. It was quite engrossing and hard to put down, and it was well written; although I would not classify as great literature.

It's the story of two young people, teenagers, during the second world war. Each one has physical or emotional problems to deal with. One, a blind girl living in Paris; the other, a young, mechanical talented orphan boy living in the town of Zollverein in Germany. The German boy, Werner Pfenning, reconstructs a radio and with his sister Jutta listen to emissions in a foreign language (turns out to be French) with some messages they don't understand, plus some beautiful music. They blind girl, in Paris, lives with her father who builds a small model of their neighborhood when she becomes blind at the age of 5 or 6 (if I remember correctly). Her father is the locksmith in charge of keys at the Museum of Natural History. Among all the things in the museum, there is reputedly a large diamond called the Sea of Flames that has in the middle some fiery red lines- the diamond carries a curse that anybody who has it will be surrounded by death and destruction but he/she will be OK. When the French surrender to the Nazis, her father flees with the daughter, Marie Laure, to the city of St. Malo in Northwestern France where his brother Etienne lives. He takes a diamond with him- the director of the museum had commissioned three exact replicas and gave them to four trusty workers- no one of them knew if he had the actual diamond.

They make it to St. Malo, where most of the action takes place. Also, Werner after many vicissitudes ends up in St. Malo as a soldier for the Germans. He is initially living in the Hotel of the Bees with other soldiers, but the Allied forces bombardment of the city destroys the hotel and Werner is trapped in the basement with another soldier. They manage to escape by making an opening blowing a grenade. By this time the city is more or less abandoned, only a few people are living there and most buildings have been destroyed except, of course, the one where Marie Laure is living (by this time her father has been wrongly accused to be a spy and carried away by the Nazis, to never heard of him again).

Near the end of the story the lives of Marie Laure and Werner converge for one day, when he comes to her building because of the music that he'd heard as a child, and later as a soldier, coming from that building. He manages to rescue Marie Laure from another Nazi, who had been searching for the infamous diamond, and both of them go to the seashore where they place the diamond in the water. Shortly after Werner escapes from the hospital where he is placed and runs into a mined field, dies. In the end, we see Werner's sister, Jutta, coming to see Marie Laure to deliver a small model house that happens to contain the Sea of Flames diamond- Marie Laure then in her old age takes to Sea of Flames to St. Malo and throws it into the sea.

All in all, a good entertaining story depicting the lives of people who manage to survive in the midst of war. Many of them are human being who do not get embroiled in the hatred driving the war, but are impacted nonetheless.

Book #54. I Am Charlotte Simmons by Thomas Wolfe

I had never read a Thomas Wolfe book until I decided to read this one. I've purchased several of his books over the years (in addition to this one, I also own Bonfire of the Vanities and also A Man in Full

What do I think of Charlotte Simmons and Wolfe's writing? Once I got over the shock of the extreme prevalence of foul language (is that the language of college people today?) I found the story itself quite gripping. Young innocent girl from a small town makes it into a prestigious university. She thinks she is going to cause tremors, the same she had done in her mountain town of Sparta, where she was the outstanding student and highly moral person, valedictorian nonetheless. But when she arrives in the prestigious university of Dupont University (sounds like it is Duke U.) she finds that most students are wealthy, and she is not; most students are highly cosmopolitan, and she is not; most students are vulgar and the girls are sluts, and she is not. But she is very good looking though.

A couple of boys, a handsome one Hoyt who belongs to the best fraternity, and another handsome who is the start basketball player, go after her. At first she ignores their attempts but when the frat boy, who is a senior, invites her to his fraternity's annual formal in DC she is taken aback and decides to go; especially since he is a Senior and she is a lowly freshman. The formal turns out that is a big drinking party, still a formal in a fancy hotel though, and Charlotte takes her first glasses of wine. She loses control and, still impressed by the handsome boy, they go up to their room (they are sharing a room with another couple that Charlotte thought it was odd) and he manages to make love to her, she loses her virginity.

Before this event, she had befriended the basketball player because although he was somewhat smart and wanted to improve himself, the pressure from his peers to show disdain for knowledge, she made him realize that it was important for him to study and learn. In the end, she becomes his girlfriend and attends his basketball games. She has made it but had some hard lessons along the way.

Book #55. Bonfire of the Vanities by Thomas Wolfe

Wow, I am way behind both in my reading and writing updates on books I've read. Will I catch up?

After reading I am Charlotte Simmons and being both shocked and perhaps impressed by Wolfe's writing, I decided to tackle one of his more famous books, Bonfire of the Vanities. Like most people I saw the movie but never got around reading the book. In fact, as I recall when the movie came out I wasn't even aware of Thomas Wolfe and that the movie's plot came from a book. My excuse is that at that time I was pretty involved with work and most of my reading was focused on on longer-established authors.

The story is well know by now, I think. Sherman McCoy is a wildly successful Wall Street trader, wealthy, with an apartment in Park Avenue, a beautiful (near trophy) wife, help around the house, a "Master of the Universe." But a wrong turn, both physically and ideologically, brings him down. The other principal character in the novel is an alcoholic British writer, Peter Fallow, who was brought to the U.S. by his publisher. He starts investigating a hit-and-run accident of a Black youth, that turns out to have been hit by McCoy's car. I won't go into all the details but one of the fascinating aspects of the book, aside from the narrative that captures New York high life in the 80s, is the rise of Fallow's star as McCoy's star falls.

All in all, it's an entertaining book and easier to read book for prude people like me) than I am Charlotte Simmons that is characterized by the predominance of foul language and four-letter words throughout the book.

Book # 56. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

This is a most interesting book that gave me a better understanding and more respect for Nabokov and changed the image I have of him- an image that was impressed from reading Lolita when I was in college in the 60s. In fact, I never read any other Nabokov book since then.

I said this is an interesting book because of the radical way that the novel is written (is it a novel?). The story is told through a 999-line poem written by Francis Shade, a professor at a college in the small town of New Wye, and the commentary and criticism of the poem by Dr. Kinbote who also teaches at the college and is renting a house across the lane from Shade. There is also a foreword introducing the poem. Once you start to read it, it appears that the "novel" is really just a poem with an introduction. Oh, and there is also a very detailed index to the poem.

As one starts to read the inter-linear commentary on the poem, it becomes evident that this is not the usual story. The poem itself seems to tell the story of Shade, one of the cantos deals with the suicide of his daughter, but it seemed to me that the whole poem was very personal. However, the commentary by Kinbote is very different- Kinbote is reading into the poem the story of the King of Zembla, the fictitious native country of Kinbote. In fact, the poem is written while Kinbote is living across from Shade and Kinbote is thinking and convinced that the poem is about the King- he tries to entice Shade to finish the poem.

As far as the King of Zembla is concerned, he had fled the country and is being tracked by a hired assassin. In the end the assassin finds Kinbote and shoots Shade instead. This is also told in the commentary.

This is a story that requires very close attention because of its complexity and confusing events. Worthwhile reading? I am not sure even though I enjoyed it; but I think this is primarily because I enjoy reading poetry.

Book #57. Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon. The full title of the book is Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daugher Mary Shelley.

This is the best biography book I've read in a long time, and perhaps the best ever, because of the writing style, the content of course and the writer's approach to telling the biography stories of both Marys. At the outset I found the book a little difficult to read and follow because the author dedicates a chronologically succession of alternating chapters to each of the Marys. That is, a chapter about Wollstonecraft's early years is followed by one about Mary Shelly's early years, so I had some difficulty keeping straight who I was reading about. I decided to take copious notes and read it more slowly, I actually started it in mid-June and just ended it last month, so the both mother and daughter would be kept clearly straight in my mind. After a few chapters the reading was easier, but other readers may not have this problem.

Now to the book. Both Wollstonecraft and Shelley were remarkable and admirable women, having a clear view of a goal of equality for women who spent their lives writing and living their beliefs. We forget, or may not be really aware, of the treatment of women by society and their husbands, for those who were married. Perhaps if we look at other parts of the world today, many countries in the Arab world for instance, we can get a sense of the low status of women and the abuses they are subjected to. England, as most of the world in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when both Marys lived, gave no rights or protection to women. Before marriage they were the property of the father more or less, and when they married they became the property of their husband; in extreme cases a husband could beat his wife and suffer no punishment, either legally or socially from the rest of society. Mary Wollstonecraft railed against these injustices and wrote copiously asking and demand equal rights for women. One of the remarkable things about them is that they were able to live more or less independently from their writings; this was particularly the case for the mother who was able to publish her writings and derive an income so she could live alone.

Mary Shelley did not know her mother- she had died two weeks after giving birth. Nonetheless, the biography writes makes a compelling case of the major influence that Wollstonecraft had on her daughter- from her thought and writings. Wollstonecraft wrote several books but the most famous is Vindication of the Rights of Women, and Mary Shelley is famous for her book Frankestein.

Both of them ended up marrying, even though it was against their deep down belief that marriage was a society convention that was meaningless, and their respective husbands were men of similar beliefs. Wollstonecraft married William Godwin, but the marriage lasted only a brief period since she died 5 months after her wedding even though she had been living together for a while. Godwin was a radical political philosopher who had written widely but was most famous for his book An Enquire Concerning Political Justice where he criticizes political institutions and the government, because it has its morality. Mary and William thought alike. Mary Shelley married the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the romantics who were influenced by Godwin's writings (others were Wordsworth and Coleridge).

The biography's author, Charlotte Gordon, brings forth a lot of detail about their lives, as well as other people related to them, but does it in a very entertaining style- once you get over the confusion as I did, you'll find it reads like a novel.

Book #58. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

This is a book assigned in my local library's reading group, although I had read it way back when I was a sophomore in College. In fact, I still have the edition I had purchased then for $1.45 new; but then I think I was making $1.25 an hour working in the school's cafeteria. So, it's important to put things in perspective.

Reading it again reminded me what a great author Graham Greene was. Within a very entertaining and engrossing plot, he addresses deep moral and religious issues (he had converted to Catholicism and took his religion very seriously indeed). Like most of Greene's novels, it deals in an exotic foreign country, this case in West Africa during the second world war.

Manuel, I must congratulate you! You've got me beat by 8 books! Wonderful reviews!
I read Bonfire of the Vanities back when I was 19 or 20. At that point it was meh to me. I don't think I'd lived enough at that point to truly appreciate it.
I have Greene's Our Man In Havana lined up for next year.

Happy Holidays, Manuel

For my Christmas/Hanukkah/Solstice/Holiday image this year (we are so diverse!), I've chosen this photograph by local photographer Mark Lenoce of the pier at Pacific Beach to express my holiday wishes to you: Peace on Earth and Good Will toward All!