2022 Reading Year in Review

2022

 

 

I read 38 individual works: 21 novels/novellas; two short story collections; three Sherlock Holmes short stories; two plays; one mythology/folklore; one Shakespeare play; one biography; three other non-fiction; three Christmas reads; and The Bible: Gospels, The Acts, and Romans.

 

Novels:

The Recognitions by William Gaddis

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bown

Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

The Adventures of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Foundation andEmpire by Isaac Asimov

Second Foundation by Isaace Asimov

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock

A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipaul

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Legends of The Fall by Jim Harrison

Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris

 

Short Story collections: 

The Haunted House by Charles Dickens and others

Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

Sherlock Holmes short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:

The Stockbroker’sClerk

The Naval Treaty

The Cardboard Box

 

Mythology and Folklore:

The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien

 

Shakespeare Historical Play:

King Henry V

 

Biography:

Lion of Liberty:The Life and Times of Patrick Henry

By Harlow Giles Unger

 

Non-Fiction:

The Prince by Niccoló Machiavelli

The Life of our Lord by Charles Dickens

Thru the Bible: Volume 4 by J. Vernon McGee

 

Christmas reads:

Is there a Santa Claus New York Sun editorial by Francis Church

A Country Christmas by Louisa May Alcott

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight  

author unknown, translation by J. R. R. Tolkien

 

Reading Challenges:

Back to the Classics 2022

What’s in a Name? 2022

R.I.P. XVI

A Literary Christmas 2022

 

 

And finally, I read 18 books for The Classics Club, Round III

.

2022 Bible Reading

I completed year four of a five-year Bible study: Thru the Bible, Vol. 4: Matthew – Romans by J. Vernon McGee.

 

J. Vernon McGee was an ordained Presbyterian minister, a non-denominational pastor, and Doctor of Divinity – though I never heard him addressed as Doctor (he probably wouldn’t have it). He was also a radio Bible teacher. His Thru the Bible broadcast was a daily study of every chapter of the Bible that took five years to complete (and then, he’d just start again).

 

If you never heard J. Vernon, well friend, I’m sorry you missed something special. He had a fatherly, mmm…make it grandfatherly, kindly voice full of warmth, humor, and wisdom. Fortunately, audio files of the broadcasts are available for free download at the Thru the Bible website:  https://www.ttb.org

 

I think listening to J. Vernon is the best way to experience Thru the Bible, but, I’m old school about reading, and like to – you know – read. So, I’m using the printed version to go through the Bible in five years – reading thru the Bible, along with J. Vernon’s corresponding commentary. 

 

Year four covered The Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; The Acts; and Romans.

 

I’ve been reading the Bible for over 40 years, but J. Vernon still manages to enlighten and inform. In 2023, I will read the fifth and final volume in the study. 

 

 

.

Back to the Classics Challenge 2022 wrap-up post

Hosted by Books and Chocolate

 

I completed all 12 categories.

 

 

19th Century Classic:

Oliver Twist

by Charles Dickens

 

20th Century Classic:

The Recognitions

by William Gaddis

 

Classic by a woman author:

Go Set a Watchman

by Harper Lee

 

Classic in Translation (from Italian):

Invisible Cities

by Italo Calvino

 

Classic by Black, Indigenous, Person-of-Color (BIPOC) author:

A House for Mr Biswas

by V. S. Naipaul

 

Classic Mystery/Detective/Crime Story:

The Maltese Falcon

by Dashiell Hammett

 

Classic Short Story Collection:

Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

Pre-1800 Classic:

The Pilgrim’s Progress (1684)

by John Bunyan

 

Classic Non-Fiction:

The Prince

by Niccoló Machiavelli

 

Classic that’s been on my list the longest:

The Death of the Heart

by Elizabeth Brown

 

Classic set in a place I’d like to visit:

Nightmare Abbey (England)

by Thomas Love Peacock

 

Wild Card:

Foundation (Sci-Fi)

by Isaac Asimov

 

 

For the challenge hostess...I can be contacted at joseph . fountain2 @ gmail . com

 

(without the spaces)

 

.

 

Christmas Tales 2022

The Magi honored the Christ child with three gifts.

 

In honor of the magi, I read three Christmas tales each December. My Christmas reads are also part of A Literary Christmas – sponsored by In the Bookcase.

 

 

 

Is there a Santa Claus by Frank Church

 

An 1897 editorial in the New York Sun to answer a simple question from a young girl. Her letter, in its entirety, read as follows:

 

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

 

In response, veteran editor Francis P. Church, wrote what was to become one of the most famous editorials in American Journalism History. The most famous line…

 

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

 

Echoes through the years, enduring long after the newspaper that printed it ceased to exist. It is a beautiful tribute to the timeless value of faith and innocence.

 

The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.

 

You can read the entire editorial and some interesting background information HERE.

 

I thought it ironic that in 1897 on a question of faith, Virginia owing to her father, had all faith in the Sun. Today our faith, mine at least, in news media is all but gone.

 

On a personal note, a few years ago, reportedly owing to a GPS malfunction, Santa Claus accidentally missed the Old Dominion, where I live. Consequently, I’ve taken to writing Santa Claus each year to admonish him…

 

Yes Santa Claus, there is a Virginia.

 

 

A Country Christmas by Louisa May Alcott

 

I may incur the wrath of LMA fans, but the simplest way to describe this short story is to say it is the model for every Hallmark Christmas movie.

 

Fancy city folk, by fate or folly, spend Christmas in a charming country setting and learn that professional success, material wealth, and sophisticated society are BAD and that only the simple country life can lead to happiness and true love.

 

Sophie Vaughan leaves her millionaire fiancé in the big city for a brief visit with her Aunt Plumy, Cousins Saul and Ruth in the wilds of Vermont. Sophie extends her stay through Christmas and invites her best friend Emily and mutual friend Randall to join her and make it an “old-fashioned frolic.”

 

***Any Hallmark Christmas Movie***

 

And though I have no taste for the movies, I credit Ms. Alcott as an early purveyor (perhaps the originator?) of the theme before it became an over-used trope. She creates interest and empathy for her characters and paints picturesque visions of the quaint countryside with mere words.

 

It was very lovely on the hill, for far as the eye could reach lay the wintry landscape sparkling with the brief beauty of sunshine on virgin snow. Pines sighed overhead, hardy birds flitted to and fro, and in all the trodden spots rose the little spires of evergreen ready for its Christmas duty. Deeper in the wood sounded the measured ring of axes, the crash of falling trees, while the red shirts of the men added color to the scene, and a fresh wind brought the aromatic breath of newly cloven hemlock and pine.

 

It was very sweet, very poignant, very enjoyable. Hopefully, that will appease the LMA fans 

 

 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight author unknown, translation by J. R. R. Tolkien

 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a 14th-century chivalric romance, part of Arthurian legend, written in Middle English.

 

It opens in Camelot, where Arthur and court hold feast and festivity to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. On New Year’s Eve, the revelers are startled as an enormous green knight rides his green horse into the banquet hall and asks to speak to the lord of the feast. After exchanging courtesies, the Knight assures Arthur he comes in peace. He issues a challenge to a sporting contest – an exchange of blows to the neck with his axe; he even allows any taker to make the first stroke and wait a year and a day before he returns the blow.

 

Arthur and his knights are silent, more stunned than afraid, but when the Green Knight mocks the honor of Camelot, Arthur himself accepts. Sir Gawain intercedes, however, and after a few formalities, swings the axe, cuts off the Green Knight’s head, and that should be that.

 

But the Green Knight picks up his own head and tells Gawain… alrighty, well played sir, see you in a year, and rides away.

 

I was a little nervous for Gawain, but he, Arthur, and Guinevere were unabashed and returned to celebrating. The year passes, and Gawain sets out in search of the Green Knight, who was none too specific about his address. In good faith, Gawain searches and has a few adventures along the way. He is eventually welcomed at a distant castle by a gracious host, who promises to show him to the Green Knight on time if Gawain will do him the honor of celebrating the season in his castle.

 

You might guess…Gawain keeps his appointment and his head. There is a test of honor and some mischief by the sorceress Morgan La Fey.

 

It was very fun, very chivalrous, but even with the good professor’s expert translation, just a bit challenging to read in poetic form. I must get to more Arthurian legend in 2023.

 

 

Merry Christmas

 

          ~ The Wanderer

 

May you be blessed with

the spirit of the season, which is Peace,

the gladness of the season, which is Hope,

and the heart of the season, which is Love

 

 

 

Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris (novel #213)

The number of things I do not remember or maybe
never knew or am only in the foggiest haze about is quite amazing. ~ Henry “Author” Wiggins

 

Bang the Drum Slowly is the first-person narrative of ace pitcher Henry Wiggins recounting the baseball campaign of the 1955 New York Mammoths. Henry is “Author” to his teammates because he wrote a book about an earlier season.

 

The team is filled with characters of similarly colorful nicknames: Lawyer, Canada, Ugly, Goose, Horse, and the team manager Dutch. During the off-season, Author learns that his best friend on the team, Bruce Pearson, is diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease which is sure to be fatal in a year or less. Bruce can still play, and Author agrees to keep his condition secret.

 

Bruce was never a great player and is rather simple. He doesn’t grasp why Henry is nicknamed Author and instead calls him Arthur. In his simplicity, Bruce accepts his fate philosophically.

 

“I have been handed a shit deal,” he said. “I am doomeded.”

 

“But the world is all rosy,” he said. “It never looked better. The bad things never looked so little, and the good never looked so big. Food tastes better. Things do not matter too much any more.”

 

As the baseball campaign begins, the Mammoths appear to be the team to beat, but they can never quite shake the Washington team, who is always 2 or 3 games behind. Author is convinced it is because there is too much dissension on the team, much of it directed towards Bruce for his simple ways.

 

The summer was still very young. The club was not a club, which I personally blame on Joe Jaros to begin with and Goose and Horse and the 4 colored boys and everybody else that couldn’t get in the act quick enough, thinking they had the flag in their pocket in May and looking for amusement, thinking it was amusement when what it was was horseshit pure and simple.

 

Of course, the secret does not keep all summer. A few of the Mammoths learn, and they are suddenly nicer to Bruce, who observes…

 

Probably everybody be nice to you if they knew you were dying.

 

And eventually, the entire team learns, though they never tell Bruce, and suddenly…

 

It was a club, like it should have been all year but never was but all of a sudden become, and we clinched it the first night in Cleveland…

 

Winning the Pennant means the World Series, where anything can happen. I’ll spare the spoiler.

 

I enjoyed this book. It was sweet and poignant. It reminded me of Of Mice and Men, or more precisely, Author and Bruce reminded me of George and Lenny. But at the risk of seeming cynical, it wasn’t entirely convincing. I don’t quite buy the complete, immediate, and unanimous change in Bruce’s teammates. The narrative was superb, the characters fantastic, and then, well, it’s Baseball!

 

How can you not be romantic about baseball? ~ Jared Lax - Moneyball

 

My rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

 

 

I read this for the What’s in a Name Challenge 2022, “Speed” category (any reference to speed).

 

The New York Mammoths are probably based on the New York Giants, though I don’t believe there is any specific character mapping. It is the most critically acclaimed and popular in Harris’ baseball tetralogy: The Southpaw, Bang the Drum Slowly, A Ticket for Seamstitch, and It Looked Like For Ever, all of which are fictionally penned by Henry “Author” Wiggens.

 

You might tell yourself 100 times a day, “Everybody dies sooner or later,” and that might be true, too, which in fact it is now that I wrote it, but when it is happening sooner instead of later you keep worrying about what you say now, and how you act now. There is no time to say, “Well, I been a heel all week but I will be better to him beginning Monday’ because Monday might never come.

 

 

Film rendition: The 1973 film stars Michael Moriarty as Author and Robert De Niro as Bruce. It is pretty faithful, though they changed the setting to the 70s. I thought the story worked better in the book, in the 50s, but it was still a decent flick.

.

Anatole (Anatole #1) by Eve Titus - Guest Book Review by my Grandson Titus

Illustrated by Paul Galdone

 

First, my grandson Titus says he likes the author’s name. (To avoid confusion, I will refer to my grandson as simply Titus, and the author as Eve Titus.)

 

Titus says Anatole is a fun story about a Parisian mouse Anatole. Anatole, his friends and family all wear clothes, speak in complete sentences, and do other things much like humans. 

[Grandpa’s commentary: Titus has not learned the word “anthropomorphized” yet, but it was clearly what he was thinking.]

 

Anatole lives with his wife Doucette and six children Paul, Paulette, Claude, Claudette, Georges, and Georgette. Titus thought the alliterated names were cute but feared they might be perceived by French persons as American ethnocentric contrivances and might have been better as other traditional feminine French names that didn’t all end in “ette”.

 

Each night Anatole and his bon ami, Gaston, bicycle into the city to forage for food in human dwellings. One fateful night, Anatole overhears humans vilifying mice as horrid pests. He is shocked and hurt, and embarks on a covert mission to prove himself, and all rodentia, honorably symbiotic with human existence.

 

At face value, Titus found this book to be great fun. It wasn’t scary or confusing, and the illustrations by Paul Galdone were rendered quite convincingly and complementary to the story.

 

But Titus also found a profound message in Anatole. He felt it was a stunning indictment on cancel culture and was impressed with Eve Titus’ foresight to address the subject, albeit whimsically, in 1957.

 

Titus gives Anatole 4 ½ Stars (he initially said 4, but when he learned it was a favorite of his Father’s when he was Titus’ age, he gave it the extra ½ star.)

 

For more book reviews by my Grandsons and Granddaughters click HERE

.

A Literary Christmas 2022

brought to you by In the Bookcase

 

The Rules are simple – pick your Christmas reads for 2022, write a blog post about them, and link back to In the Bookcase. And now that it's December, I can do this :)

 

I honor of the Magi, who brought the Christ child three gifts, I read three Christmas tales each December. This year I will be reading:

 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (translation by J. R. R. Tolkien)

 

A Country Christmas by Louisa May Alcott

 

Is there a Santa Clause by Frank Church

(Commonly known as Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus)

 

Have a Blessed Christmas

 

The Wanderer

 

The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien

‘Many are the strange chances of the world,’ said Mithrander, ‘ and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter.’

 

The Silmarillion is a collection of myths telling the history of Middle Earth from creation through the events of the Third Age or the events described in detail in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

 

It consists of five parts:

• “Ainulindalë” – Creation of Eä (the world) by Ilúvatar
• “Valaquenta” – Tale of Valar and Maiar, subordinate deities
• “Quenta Silmarillion” – The first age of Middle Earth (primarily tale of the elves)
• “Arkallabeth” – The Second Age, the rise and fall of Numenor (highest race of mortal men)
• “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”

 

It was published posthumously and extensively edited by Christopher Tolkien and Guy Gavriel Kay.

 

This was my third re-read. I first read it in 1977, the year it was published. I’d read The Lord of the Rings in 1971 and was thrilled to have something new by my favorite author. I was a bit disappointed at the time. It wasn’t nearly as fun. It is more of a history book. Still, it was more Middle Earth, and I was happy to read it. I still have my first American Edition (pictured above).

 

I read it to refresh my memory and check the accuracy of the recent television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. I found the television series entertaining in its own right, but it IS NOT true to The Silmarillion.

 

It was better on this re-read. It is filled with back story for Aragorn, Elrond, Galadriel, Sauron, and the Nazgul; new heroes Turin and Tuor; the three elven fathers Olwë, Elwë, Finwë; the tragic line of Fëanor son of Finwë; and as seems fitting, very little of Hobbits.

 

A MUST-READ for Tolkien fans!

 

.