For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway & the Ideal Self
“Don’t ever kid yourself about loving some one. It is just that most people are not lucky enough ever to have it.”
Tag: Ernest Hemingway
On Becoming a Novelist (1983) by John Gardner and the Art of Fiction
“On some subjects—for instance, writers’ workshops—one is tempted to pull punches or rest satisfied with oversimplified answers; but I’m assuming, as the primary reader of this book, an intensely serious beginning novelist who wants the strict truth (as I perceive it) for his life’s sake, so that he can plan his days of technique, theory, and attitude; and become as quickly and efficiently as possible a master of his craft” (p xxii).
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The Dark Forest: Remembrance of Earth’s Past #2 (2008/2015) by Cixin Liu & The Future of Humanity
“Suppose a vast number of civilizations are distributed throughout the universe, on the order of the number of detectable stars. Lots and lots of them. Those civilizations make up the body of a cosmic society. Cosmic sociology is the study of the nature of this super-society” (p 12).
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The Three-Body Problem (2006/2014) by Cixin Liu & the Remembrance of Earth’s Past
“She was intoxicated by her brilliant, crimson dream until a bullet pierced her chest.”
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Norwegian Wood (1987) by Haruki Murakami & the Songs of Seeking Love
“Well, to me, that’s what love is. Not that anyone can understand me, though.”
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In the Evil Day (2015) by Richard Adams Carey & the Tragedy in Colebrook, America
“It had rained Saturday night, but the rain had dwindled to a stop before dawn, and across the river, above and beyond the belfry and steeple, the green whaleback of Monadnock was wreathed in gossamer wisps of fog.”
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The Good Luck Cat (2014) by Lissa Warren & the Truth Behind One Woman’s Smile
“And then, on Christmas Eve, a miracle occurred: Ting-Pei Warren, the Judeo-Christian Buddhist cat, high on catnip and tuna water, silently scaled the six-foot spruce while her family sat by the fire, making short work of a pecan-encrusted cheese log. The three of us turned just in time to see her, a silver star atop the highest bough. And just in time to see her lose her balance and take the entire tree down with her.”
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Journey of an American Son (2014) by John Hazen & Ben Albert’s Historical Saga to India
“I want to tell you a story. This story is about the man you’re named after and about the woman who looked after you early in your life and about the man she called her American son.”
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Wind/Pinball (1979/1980) by Haruki Murakami & the Existential Mood of Being Forgotten
“There are wells, deep wells, dug in our hearts. Birds fly over them.”
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Fields of Blood (2014) by Karen Armstrong & Is Religion the Cause of All Major Wars?
A compendium of history, politics and religion since the dawn of the agrarian age in human civilization.
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Go Set a Watchman (2015) by Harper Lee & the Death of a Beloved Hero
“Go away, the old buildings said. There is no place for you here. You are not wanted. We have secrets.”
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Oracle Bones (2006) by Peter Hessler & the Tears of Regret for the Poet Chen Mengjia
“Recovery, in all its varied forms, is simply a human instinct.”
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River Town (2001) by Peter Hessler & the Imperialist vs the Poet
“To travel through Sichuan countryside is to feel the history, the years of work that have shaped the land, the sheer weight of humanity on patches of earth that have been worked in the same way for centuries.”
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