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on July 10, 2026, 9:28:50, in reply to "Not "fun summer reads" but I've recently finished Stoner by John Williams. "
I’ve got a big backlog of stuff I picked up from used book stores and library book sales recently, which will keep me busy through the summer, but it’s on my list for once I dig out from the current pile.
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What a beautifully written book. Gritty yet ethereal at the same time. Particularly enjoyable as earlier this year I finished At the Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Bakewell and Stoner is very existentialist.
At the Existentialist Cafe is somewhat of a biography of several of the thinkers in Paris (mainly) and how their lives intersected and how their relationships influenced each other's work. Sartre, Camus, Beauvoir, etc.
I enjoyed that so much I read Bakewell's other books -How to Live - The Life of Montaigne (a biography that digs into his writings) and Humanly Possible - 700 Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry and Hope (a great study of humanism and it's history, in case you didn't get that from the title).
Bakewell is super accessible in both her ability to break down concepts and her writing style.
Just finished Trust by Hernan Diaz. He tells the story of a capitalist tycoon in the years leading up to the crash of '29 through 4 different viewpoints. Very cleverly done and easy to relate to each POV. Won the Pulitzer a few years ago.
Currently reading Angel Down by Daniel Krauss. Just got started with this one. The entire novel is written as one sentence, which I thought might be a little annoying, but it hasn't intruded on my reading yet. After a couple of chapters, interested to see where he's going with it. Also a recent Pulitzer winner.
Oh, and finished the first book of The Poppy Wars. Really enjoyed it and loved the concept but not sure I'll finish the series, mainly because I have so many other things in the queue.
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I've recently been enjoying this light little page-turner that's made a lot of Non-fiction bests of 2026 so far.
Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945
No idea how much Goebbels banned dancing, then allowed it, then banned it, then allowed it only on Tues-Thurs, then banned it again....it was like the pastor in Footloose but significantly more evil.
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