This was a weird one. It started off weird and although it made much more sense by the end, I still had to look up explanations for some of what happened. A few questions remain, some of which are too spoilery to describe. Speaking of, how does one describe this book? That’s more than just a rhetorical question – I’m really not sure. The first several chapter seem disjointed, but later you learn how they are all connected (although I still don’t understand the first […]
Satirical Dark Humor
Catch-22 is a classic that I started in high school and for some reason never finished, and I wanted to give it another shot. It’s the story of a military squadron on the island of Pianosa, off the coast of Italy, during World War II. Technically, it’s more about bombardier John Yossarian than about any other character, but it’s essentially an ensemble cast. Most chapters are titled after a character, although sometimes that character only makes a brief appearance. Yossarian has flown his required number of […]
Six Degrees of Separation
This is one of the books that my partner is reading for his book club at work (the first book being Orhan Pamuk’s Snow), and I thought it would be fun to read the same ones he did. I enjoyed it, although it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. The description makes it seem like it’s going to be largely about music producer Bennie Salazar and his assistant Sasha, and to some extent it is; the first two chapters focus on them individually. However, all of […]
Short and Thought-Provoking
Sum is a book that you could easily tear through in an hour or two, depending on how quickly you read and whether you take time to process what you’ve read, but I would recommend taking a little bit of time with it. I read it over the course of a few days so I could take a little time to absorb and reflect on each vignette, or at least the ones that I found most interesting or thought-provoking. Sum manages to contain a lot […]