I am a person of few interests. Reading is my only true hobby, although I seldom get time for it. Below is the collection of books I have read over the year and enjoyed.
Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer
Originally published in 1953, this adventure classic recounts Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer’s 1943 escape from a British internment camp in India, his daring trek across the Himalayas, and his happy sojourn in Tibet, then, as now, a remote land little visited by foreigners. Warmly welcomed, he eventually became tutor to the Dalai Lama, teenaged god-king of the theocratic nation. The author’s vivid descriptions of Tibetan rites and customs capture its unique traditions before the Chinese invasion in 1950, which prompted Harrer’s departure. A 1996 epilogue details the genocidal havoc wrought over the past half-century.
The Haj by Leon Uris
Leon Uris retums to the land of his acclaimed best-seller Exodus for an epic story of hate and love, vengeance and forgiveness. The Middle East is the powerful setting for this sweeping tale of a land where revenge is sacred and hatred noble. Where an Arab ruler tries to save his people from destruction but cannot save them from themselves. When violence spreads like a plague across the lands of Palestine-this is the time of The Haj. This is a highly controversial book. You will either love’The Haj’ or hate it.
A Painted House by John Grisham
John Grisham’s A Painted House’ describes, in his own words, the life of 7 year old Luke Chandler, an Arkansas farm boy growing up in the midst of the cotton fields. Luke is full of curiosity and mischief, as he witnesses life around him, causing him to make very adult decisions about keeping secrets. You will fall in love with the characters. This book will make you laugh and make you cry.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati RoyThis highly stylized novel tells the story of one very fractured family from the southernmost tip of India. Here is an unhappy family unhappy in its own way, and through flashbacks and flashforwards The God of Small Things unfolds the secrets of these characters’ unhappiness. First-time novelist Arundhati Roy twists and reshapes language to create an arresting, startling sort of precision. The average reader of mainstream fiction may have a tough time working through Roy’s prose, but those with a more literary bent to their usual fiction inclinations should find the initial struggle through the dense prose a worthy price for this lushly tragic tale.
Timeline by Michael Crichton
Timeline is one of the most exciting books I have ever read. Crichton stays true to his form by making the details of his story extremely believable, yet awe- inspiring. Timeline never becomes boring or predictable. It is possible to become enslaved to this novel once you begin, so it is a perfect traveling book, or to read during a vacation.