Anu Partanen: The Nordic Theory of Everything

This book helped me see the big picture of life in the United States as opposed to life in a Nordic country. We Americans like to say that the U.S. is the best country in the world, but Anu Partanen shows us at great length why this is not true anymore. The chaos of our healthcare system, our convoluted tax system, and rising school tuition are just a few of the obstacles to our success and happiness.

The author also explains why the Nordic countries enjoy being what she calls "well-being states," as opposed to what we often hear-- that they are undesirable socialist "nanny states," stifling creativity and enterprise. She explains that Finland is not a socialist state, but an advanced capitalist state.

I thought her chapter on education was stimulating and her chapter on heath care systems was passionate and extraordinary. You would think a book about social structures would be weighed down with heavy language, but that is not so. It is very simply and clearly written.

Erika Robuck: The House of Hawthorne

Sophie and Nathaniel Hawthorne fell in love at first sight and stayed in love forever afterwards. This novel takes place in the mid-1800s, before the Civil War in the U.S.A. Yet the story does not seem old-fashioned. Nathaniel Hawthorne, of course, is the famous author of House of Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter. This is not a biography but rather a lively reimagining of Nathaniel and Sophie's lives. Other American literary figures also appear in the book, including Emerson and Herman Melville. This is a good book for summer reading. The English is not difficult.
 

Daniel Goleman: A Force for Good

Daniel Goleman, the bestselling author of Emotional Intelligence, is a scientist who has been collaborating with the Dalai Lama for many years. I think it is interesting that the Dalai Lama is not pushing people to become Buddhists, but rather encouraging them to become more compassionate human beings, whatever their beliefs. I also think it is interesting that this book is taking on global social issues. The time scale is definitely longer than one generation in which to witness the positive changes we would all like to see in the world. The Dalai Lama thinks that changes in how children are educated will be very important to the way things develop into the future.

Truman Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany's

Would our lives be easier and happier if we were not carrying around with us ideas about right and wrong? Truman Capote seems to create such a character in Holly Golightly. Yet all is not as it seems. And nothing continues the same, as the story develops fascinating twists and turns.

Mario Vargas Llosa: In Praise of the Stepmother

Called by many an 'erotic' novel, I don't feel it is sexy. The family's young son in the story is said to be 'innocent,' yet he is an expert seducer at a young age. The father of the family spends an hour each night in the bathroom taking care of his aging body, and here again everything is not as it seems. Some say the novel is 'wickedly funny,' yet I never laughed.

Is this book about a boy's precocious sexuality or about something else? What is this lively small novel really about? We'll never know, because the author never quite tells us.

Wait a minute! I have changed my mind about this book. The boy is pictured on the front cover as a baby, but what if he is really 15 or 16 years old, as indicated by the fact that his father will be giving him a motorcycle on his next birthday? That would change things. That would put an entirely different slant on the boy's presumed "innocence."

The author won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010. He is mainly known for political and journalistic works.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was a person of high literary accomplishment and the author of Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence, and The House of Mirth. Ethan Frome is a grim tale about the impossibility of finding love, beauty, kindness, or generosity in America, locked as it was into heartless Puritanism. Massachusetts in winter is the perfect setting for this tragic tale.

Edith Wharton, A Biography, by R.W.B. Lewis, is also well worth reading.

An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

The main character of this novel, a 72-year-old Lebanese woman, worships writers. Every year she translates a favorite book into Arabic, then stores it away. Her work has never been read by anyone. She is divorced and has no children. She is on the outs with her family and has no friends. In the midst of social upheaval, her life is dedicated and disciplined, almost monastic. The book is surprisingly lively and absorbing.

“A paean to the transformative power of reading, to the intellectual asylum from one’s circumstances found in the life of the mind.”—LA Review of Books