Here’s something new I am going to try out. Every couple of months, I’ll give a brief update on what I’ve been reading – not everything, of course, but the books that I feel compelled to share. I’ll provide a brief synopsis along with a (mostly meaningless) star rating out of five. Most importantly, the comments section of this post can be used as a jumping point for discussion not only for the books that I have noted, but for what you have read lately as well. Feel free to leave your thoughts on these, your thoughts on anything that you have read lately, as well as any recommendations you might have for anyone. Hopefully we can get some discussion going. Cheers!

The Graveyard Book (2008)
Author: Neil Gaiman
Synopsis: “Somewhere in contemporary Britain, ‘the man Jack’ uses his razor-sharp knife to murder a family, but the youngest, a toddler, slips away. The boy ends up in a graveyard, where the ghostly inhabitants adopt him to keep him safe. Nobody Owens, so named because he ‘looks like nobody but himself,’ grows up among a multigenerational cast of characters from different historical periods … As he grows up, Bod has a series of adventures, both in and out of the graveyard, and the threat of the man Jack who continues to hunt for him is ever present.”
Star Rating: * * * * *

Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
Author: George Orwell
Synopsis: “Orwell’s first published book, it contains essays in which actual events are recounted in a fictionalized form. The book recounts that to atone for the guilt he feels about the conditions under which the disenfranchised and downtrodden peoples of the world exist, Orwell decides to live and work as one of them. Dressed as a beggar, he takes whatever employment might be available to a poverty-stricken outcast of Europe. In Paris he lives in a slum and works as a dishwasher. … Dressed as a tramp, he travels throughout England with hoboes and migrant laborers.”
Star Rating: * * * *

Salt: A World History (2003)
Author: Mark Kurlansky
Synopsis: “Homer called salt a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. Today we take salt for granted, a common, inexpensive substance that seasons food or clears ice from roads, a word used casually in expressions (‘salt of the earth,’ ‘take it with a grain of salt’) without appreciating their deeper meaning. However, as Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates in his world-encompassing new book, salt—the only rock we eat—has shaped civilization from the very beginning. Its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of mankind.”
Star Rating: * * * *

The Razor’s Edge (1944)
Author: W. Somerset Maugham
Synopsis: “The Razor’s Edge tells the story of an American, Larry Darrell, who, traumatized by his experiences as a fighter pilot in World War I, decides to search for some transcendent meaning in his life. … The story begins through the eyes of Larry’s friends and acquaintances as they witness his personality change after the War. His rejection of conventional life and search for meaningful experience allows him to thrive while the more materialistic characters suffer reversals of fortune.”
Star Rating: * * * * *

Factotum (1975)
Author: Charles Bukowski
Synopsis: “One of Charles Bukowski’s best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another, always needing money but never badly enough to keep a job. His day-to-day existence spirals into an endless litany of pathetic whores, sordid rooms, dreary embraces, and drunken brawls, as he makes his bitter, brilliant way from one drink to the next.”
Star Rating: * * * *

Rabbit Redux (1971)
Author: John Updike
Synopsis: “The assumptions and obsessions that control our daily lives are explored in tantalizing detail by master novelist John Updike in this wise, witty, and sexy story. Harry Angstrom – known to all as Rabbit, one of America’s most famous literary characters – finds his dreary life shattered by the infidelity of his wife, Janice. How he resolves or further complicates his problems makes for a novel of the first order.”
Star Rating: * * * *

American Rust (2009)
Author: Philipp Meyer
Synopsis: “Buell, Pennsylvania lies in ruins, a dying – if not already dead – steel town, where even the lush surrounding country seethes with concealed industrial toxins. When Isaac English and Billy Poe – a pair of high-school friends straight out of Steinbeck – embark on a starry-eyed cross-country escape to California, a violent encounter with a trio of transients leaves one dead, prying the lid off a rusted can of failed hope and small-town secrets. American Rust is Philipp Meyer’s first novel, and his taut, direct prose strikes the perfect tone for this kaleidoscope of fractured dreams, elevating a book that otherwise might be relentlessly dour to the level of honest and unflinching storytelling.”
Star Rating: * * * *