Great idea to share book notes, Eric. I’ve heard tremendous things about the Bryson book, so I’ll check that out. And strokes hit close to home way too often in my family—they haunt my thoughts—so I’ll have to check out the youtube and book you mention above.
I was a science geek for many years at a different stage in my life, though more focussed on the biological sciences. In that vein, I can’t recommend highly enough any of the Lewis Thomas books that are based on his column in the New England Journal of Medicine. I think Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher is the first one. Insightful, engaging, and so generous of spirit. This man and his books are treasures. If you find you like and and you are a word guy, check out his late in life foray into etymology, a book called “Etc. Etc.” Wonderful.
For science/science fiction, check out Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go.” Just a brilliant, but dark book. This guy is a brilliant craftsman.
Young adults/science fiction: Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. I’m not a young adults reader or a sci fi guy, but this trilogy is astonishing. Perhaps the best fiction I’ve read since leaving school. It touches on everything: Milton, classical philosophy, aging, the boundary between childhood and adulthood. No young adult’s book had ever won the Whitbread Award, and the first book in this trilogy won it on the first ballot, in a unanimous vote, no less. It is that good. It also contains the most complete depiction of childhood and childhood love I have ever read. The protagonist is a fierce, brilliant girl. Should I ever have a daughter, I can’t wait to introduce this book to her. Really, I can’t recommend these books enough. Warning: in some circles these books are controversial. Some American Catholics, in particular, thought the book was anti-church and anti-papist. Those critics probably didn’t read enough good books, like this one, when they were young.
More traditional fiction: I’ve come to like Ian McEwan recently. “Saturday” is probably my favorite book of his. “Cement Gardens” is amazing, and amazingly disturbing.
Jim Crace’s “Quarantine” is a wonderful re-telling of Christ’s fast in the desert. Not broadly enough read. If you like it, try “Being Dead” about a murdered couple’s decomposing bodies.
Richard Powers’s “Operation Wandering Soul” is amazing and exhausting. It has a gripping side story about a population of cancer cells all cultured from the same sample. This guy’s omnivorious creativity is miraculous to digest. I note that Crace and Powers are both science-inspired writers, EP, if you like that sort of thing.
John Gardner’s “Mickelson’s Ghosts” gripped me and slightly creeped me out more than any book I’ve read in years. If you are drawn to prototypically “male” academically tinged stories, you will love this. I sure did, but I don’t know a single woman who has liked it.
Frederick Exeley’s “A Fan’s Notes” moved me tremendously. It tackles creativity (Matt, based on your latest liner notes, you might find this one engaging) and a person reconciling himself to the validity of being an observer rather than a creator. I read this at a time I was navigating a fork in the road on career paths and it was incredibly timely and relevant.
I believe Exeley was an inspiration for Richard Ford. I highly recommend everything he has written, but his Frank Bascombe trilogy is a towering achievement. “The Sportwriter,” “Independence Day,” and “The Lay of the Land.” I find the first and last the best, but “Independence Day” got the most critical accolades. “Lay of the Land” is an amazing meditation on aging, but the “Sportswriter” is the one that really got under my skin. I think the finest two pages in the English Language are the final pages of Joyce’s short story “The Dead” (if you’ve never read it, read it on this snowy day), but the final pages of “the Sportswriter” are right there also. Interestingly, I quoted a phrase from those pages to someone at the airport over the weekend and he completed the sentence for me. One of those wonderful moments when one realizes how rich he is with friends. (Spike, you met him before the Cedar show).
For pure joy, I would recommend PG Wodehouse, especially any of the Jeeves and Wooster books. If you like them, Netflix some of the BBC Jeeves and Wooster productions. You will love Stephen Frye’s Jeeves and he will blow your mind as he holds his own with, and often overshadows, Hugh Laurie’s Wooster. Just thinking about their shenanigans makes me smile. In fact, I suggest retiring the “pony” trope being applied to John and Matt and instead consider John as the Jeeves to Matt’s Wooster. Try one of the books or watch one of the productions and tell me it doesn’t fit!
I’m about to wrap up Ursula Le Guin’s Lavinia—a retelling of the Aeneid. Enjoying it, but not sure I’d recommend it. I’ll next probably embark upon some of the Henning Mankell mysteries. Too many people are recommending them for me to ignore them any more.
Good reading!
-psh
