I've been negligent in updating the list of books I've read on this web site, so today it was necessary to add 4, all of which deserve some attention. I just finished Winesburg Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, stories about small town Ohio a century ago. This book is on Modern Library's list of the 100 best Novels of the last century. I have passed by it several times when searching for something to read next, but finally selected it because it was available as a free e-book. While it may not appeal to younger, sophisticated readers, it was right down my alley with its descriptions of small town/rural life in a simpler time. It made me wish I could have walked under the trees on a warm summer night in that small town as so many of Anderson's characters did.
I recently read a non-fiction account of the travels in Nepal of the author, Jeff Rasley, in his book Bringing Progress to Paradise. His experiences taking tourists on treks in the Himilayan foothills and efforts to provide needed school supplies for the children of Basa were made even more interesting for me because he lives in Indianapolis and we recently became acquainted.
I have also read over the summer two other books from Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list, Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham, and Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The first is set in England in the late 19th century and about Phillip, who at the age of 9 must be raised by his uncle, a cleric, after the death of his mother. His father, a physician had died previously. His life is filled with bondage; his young years to the oppressive uncle and the church which bring Phillip into young adulthood without much self respect or confidence in what he wants to be or do. He then falls victim to friends and lovers, always unable to assert his own will, yet always striving to become a doctor like his father. His life is primarily determined by events, not will.
Finally, Fitzgerald writes about a psychiatrist studying in Europe who meets a rich young woman who has suffered a mental trauma from being abused by her father. While she is in treatment they fall in love and are married. They lead a rich life with friends in Europe during the 1920's before the woman has a relapse. Fitzgerald gained his knowledge of psychiatry from experience with his real life wife who had mental problems.
I enjoyed each of these books and recommend any or all of them to my readers. There is so much to be learned from reading both fiction and non-fiction, it is only too bad that in the hectic pace of work life when we are between our high school or college years and retirement it is hard to find the time. Retired now, I'm learning late what might have been useful earlier in life.
