Done!
1. Room by Emma Donohue
2. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
5. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
6. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
7. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
8. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
9. The Shack by William Young
10.The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
11. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
12. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
13. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
14. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
15. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
16. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
17. Bossypants by Tina Fey
18. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
19. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
20. Watership Down by Richard Adams
21. The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
22. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
23. Eats, Shoots, & Leaves by Lynne Truss
24. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
25. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
I chose to challenge myself for my final book of the year. Unfortunately I forgot about a little phenomenon called "summer brain" in which I just want to read books that I can breeze through while sitting poolside. So this was more of a challenge than I originally anticipated.
For Whom the Bell Tolls is the story of Robert Jordan, an American dynamiter serving during the Spanish Civil War. The entire novel surrounds one mission of Jordan's- to blow up a key bridge near the town of Segovia. Jordan waits near the bridge in the mountains with a group of guerrilla fighters. A majority of the story details their time waiting for the mission, and sharing the harrowing experiences they have all had in the war and in life.
The title refers to a John Donne poem which basically explains the whole point of the book.
"Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
In a word, the book is about death. As I understand it, the bells referred to in the title are bells that ring at a church for someone who has died. The bells eventually toll for all of us. And as guerrilla soldiers on basically a suicide mission, the bells are tolling every day for all of the main characters of this novel. The result is basically a novel dedicated to the musings of men and women from different walks of life as they face their almost certain death.
The thing about Hemingway is sometimes he drones on and on and can get boring. But you can't stop reading because every once in a while he slips in something like this:
“How little we know of what there is to know. I wish that I were going to live a long time instead of going to die today because I have learned much about life in these four days; more, I think than in all other time. I'd like to be an old man to really know. I wonder if you keep on learning or if there is only a certain amount each man can understand. I thought I knew so many things that I know nothing of. I wish there was more time.”
If that doesn't hit you right in the soul, then this book probably isn't for you. But if you're willing to work for a little profundity, then give it a try.
A Farewell to Arms is still my favorite Hemingway so far, though. So start with that one.
24. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
25. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
I chose to challenge myself for my final book of the year. Unfortunately I forgot about a little phenomenon called "summer brain" in which I just want to read books that I can breeze through while sitting poolside. So this was more of a challenge than I originally anticipated.
For Whom the Bell Tolls is the story of Robert Jordan, an American dynamiter serving during the Spanish Civil War. The entire novel surrounds one mission of Jordan's- to blow up a key bridge near the town of Segovia. Jordan waits near the bridge in the mountains with a group of guerrilla fighters. A majority of the story details their time waiting for the mission, and sharing the harrowing experiences they have all had in the war and in life.
The title refers to a John Donne poem which basically explains the whole point of the book.
"Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
In a word, the book is about death. As I understand it, the bells referred to in the title are bells that ring at a church for someone who has died. The bells eventually toll for all of us. And as guerrilla soldiers on basically a suicide mission, the bells are tolling every day for all of the main characters of this novel. The result is basically a novel dedicated to the musings of men and women from different walks of life as they face their almost certain death.
The thing about Hemingway is sometimes he drones on and on and can get boring. But you can't stop reading because every once in a while he slips in something like this:
“How little we know of what there is to know. I wish that I were going to live a long time instead of going to die today because I have learned much about life in these four days; more, I think than in all other time. I'd like to be an old man to really know. I wonder if you keep on learning or if there is only a certain amount each man can understand. I thought I knew so many things that I know nothing of. I wish there was more time.”
If that doesn't hit you right in the soul, then this book probably isn't for you. But if you're willing to work for a little profundity, then give it a try.
A Farewell to Arms is still my favorite Hemingway so far, though. So start with that one.
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