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Christmas Book Bag

Christmas Book Bag

Al Gini

Resident Philosopher

Loyola University Chicago

  • Christmas- A time for family and friends.
  • Also, a time of Anxiety and Perplexity!
  • Gifts! What to give those you love?
  • There is no one right gift or answer to this problem.
  • But for me, I’ve decided to give to others things that I love and want to share with them: Books I have read and enjoyed!
  • My list includes- 4 novels and 2 non-fictions.

                      1. The Children Act– Ian Mc Ewan

The story a judge who must decide if a minor child, whose parents are Christian Scientists, is to be given in a lifesaving transfusion. But this is also a story of a 59 year female judge-who’s committed to the life of the law and in the process has lost control of her personal life.

  • Smart, polished logical, measured, introspective
  • Very, very English. If it wasn’t set in contemporary setting, you’d think it was a “period parlor piece”
  • It’s a book about passion and the loss of passion, See opening few pages: “I want to have an affair. I need it. I’m 59. This is my last shot.” (Husband)

                   2. Dear Committee Member, Julie Schumacher

For anyone in academia or for that matter in corporate life-this is a book of manners and morals- in letters. That is, Jason Fitger, a professor of Creative writing at a not very distinguished Midwestern University, plays out his life and offers opinion and advice through a series of Sardonic, Satirical, Pithy, ironically witty letters.

These are letters written by a bitter defeated, jaded, and altogether eccentric professor who is angry about his own life and wants to share his indignation, anger, and ennui with others. This book is painfully funny and wonderfully written.

                    3. The Golden Egg, Donna Leon

This is one of the most recent Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery novels, but not her latest.

Set in Venice Italy, the book starts off with the simple disappearance of a handicap man, and ends in a complex family tragedy and illegal conspiracy. But the Guido Brunetti novels are much more than murder mysteries. They are travelogues about Venice, Italian Culture and politics, and, of course there’s a lot of talk about food and wine. Brunetti is not just a cop who solves crimes, he is a man of conscience and compassion. He is a cop who always follows the spirit of the law, but not necessarily the exact letter of the law.

                    4. An Event in Autumn, Manning Markell

Next to Guido Brunetti, my favorite detective is the Swedish Inspector Kurt Wallander. Like Donna Leon, Markell has created a character of complexity, compassion and philosophical confusion about the nature of the law and behavior of people.

All told, Markell has written 11 books about Wallander and this book was written about 15 years ago, but just transited. This book is about Wallander finally buying a house in the county as an escape from the crimes of the city. However, the first thing he discovers in this idyllic house are the skeletons of two murder victims!

Note: In 2011- Markell published The Troubled Man, which is the end of the Wallander series.

                 5. The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert

This is not a warm, fuzzy, or a fun read-but, it contains a message that all of us need to be aware of. There have been 5 major natural extinctions in the life of this planet. These five were all about the death/termination of various animal and plant life forms in the evolution of this planet. Kolbert stresses that these were natural unavoidable evolutionary-extinction events.

But now we are in a new geological period: The Anthropocene– the Human Dominated Geological Epoch. And in this epoch we have altered life on this planet in a way that not only endangers our lives, but all life on this planet.

  • “In pushing other species to extinction, humanity is busy sawing off the limb on which it perches.” –Paul Ehrlich

 

                 6. Killing Patton, Bill O’Reilly, Martin Dugard

  • I admit it: This is a guilty pleasure!
  • I don’t like O’Reilly’s politics, professional style, or his talk show.
  • But, he has written three gripping historical best sellers that I just couldn’t put down: Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, and now Killing Patton. (Have not read Killing Jesus.)
  • What’s compelling in all three of these books, is that they are history but written in a fiction style.
  • In Killing Patton the setting is the final push on Germany and the Battle of the Bulge.
  • Each chapter jumps back and forth between all the players in this world drama: Patton, Hitler, Hitler’s generals, Eisenhower, Stalin, FDR, and Churchill.
  • A Great, gripping Read- And, we win!

 

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