Father Sergius, by Leo Tolstoy

Very enjoyable and thought provoking story about a young Russian nobleman and military officer who is disillusioned by human weakness, vice, and sin in the world and decides to give up a brilliant military career to become a priest.  He discovers to his chagrin that sin and weakness have a long reach. They continue to bedevil him even as a priest in a big city, then even as a hermit in a remote monastery.  His search for spiritual improvement does not prove fruitless, however, because he realizes what his most insidious fault is when he abandons his hermitage in shame after a serious lapse and visits an old childhood friend in reduced circumstances.     

I suspect this story may have been inspired by Tsar Alexander I, who was rumored to have faked his death and entered a monastery, living the rest of his life under an assumed identity.

A World Undone, by G. J. Meyer

This is an excellent choice for those who are looking for a good overall history of World War I, who have not studied this war before, or the background history of the major players.  For the amount of material it covers, it is a short book.  G. J. Meyer intersperses "Background" sections at well chosen points in his narrative, that give information about persons, countries, or other entities that the reader is about to encounter, such as the Ottoman Empire, for example, or the Romanovs.

This is only the second book I've read about World War I, after Barbara Tuchman's <i>Guns of August</i>, and compared to that book, which focuses primarily on the Western front, this one gives a more comprehensive view.

A Treatise on Purgatory, by St. Catherine of Genoa

I wanted to read this book after hearing Fr. Benedict Groeschel recommend it during a talk (which I came across on YouTube) about "Death and Purgatory".  It is a very interesting account of the private revelations made to St. Catherine of Genoa (known to Protestants as "Madame Adorno") about what purgatory is and what it is like for the souls that are in it.  Purgatory is a subject that is not much covered in church sermons or religion classes that I have attended, so I found this book very informative.  Highly recommended!

A Room With A View, by E. M. Forster

This is my second time reading this since high school--prompted by a recent viewing of the 1980's film adaptation with Helena Bonham Carter.  I like Howards End even better, but A Room with a View is very fun read too.  It's a romantic comedy about Lucy Honeychurch, an upper middle class, rather sheltered young lady, who goes on a tour of Italy with her proper spinster Aunt Charlotte, and who has her horizons widened, and not just by the art and architecture.  She meets a variety of different people, not the least of which are two very different young men:  George Emerson, a passionate young railway clerk, beneath her in class, but to whom her thoughts keep reverting despite herself, and Cecil Vyse, a wealthy aesthete who would make a respectable husband for a girl of her station.  Which will she choose? 

E.M. Forster has a talent for showing the state of mind of his characters by subtle details in their behavior or reactions, with nothing overplayed or forced such that everything seems natural yet significant.

Howards End, by E. M. Forster

This is a re-read for me, prompted after watching the Emma Thompson/Anthony Hopkins movie based on it.  Howards End is the name of an old country house in England that is the childhood home of Ruth Wilcox, to whose family it has belonged for generations.  She has a deep love for her family home and land, and the traditions of the village where she was born.  It makes her something of the odd woman out in her family, since her husband, a wealthy industrialist, and adult children are all very modern and practical in their tastes and outlook on life.  They befriend the Schlegels, upper middle class intellectuals who value education and cultural pursuits, and who have formed a friendship with Leonard Bast, a lower class clerk who aspires to become more intellectually and culturally learned.  The book is about how these three groups of people interact with each other, and who will end up inheriting Howards End (which could be thought of as a symbol for England in general) after Ruth Wilcox's death. 

The book is enjoyable and can be read on several different levels.  The movie is very well done too, and quite close to the original storyline.

Fatima, In Lucia's Own Words

I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the Fatima apparitions and the message they intended to convey.  Lucia is herself one of the visionaries, so it is a primary source.  She discusses the apparitions in a straightforward manner, and gives personal background information about herself and her two younger cousins, Francisco and Jacinta, who saw the apparitions with her, and who died of illness not very long afterwards.

Les mouettes, par Sándor Márai

Les personnages de ce roman font des monologues tellement longs que je me suis endormie plusieurs fois pendant la lecture. Pas recommandé sauf comme somnifère.

Les erreurs de l'occident, par Alexander Solzhenitsyn

This is the French edition of Mortal Danger.

Three Questions, by Leo Tolstoy

This story is an excellent cure for two kinds of people: 1. procrastinators, and 2. those who have a tendency to overthink things or who believe there is some grand theory that will solve all problems if only they knew it. The king in this story is searching for knowledge that will help make him a better king when consistently applied. The hermit demonstrates how much more simple life is. There is no grand theory. You just have to take life as it comes in all its variety and do your best to figure out what is right for each situation.

Twilight and Moonbeam Alley, by Stefan Zweig

 I find that there is something almost cinematic about Stefan Zweig’s writings. He has a talent for creating scenes in the reader’s imagination that draws them in and makes them feel what the characters are feeling. Both stories in this collection deal with despair, loneliness, and the isolation of human beings from each other.

Twilight is about a high ranking lady who has fallen out of favor with the king. She is obliged to leave Versailles to stay at her estate in a sleepy rural town. Accustomed to being the center of attention because of her great influence at court, she never realized that she was just as dependent on the flattery and attention of other people as they were on her for the favors she could grant. After living a life that revolved around creating an outward image for the public to admire, she is not capable of cultivating an interior life, and the scant social life in the little town leaves her no scope for her talents. She begins to contemplate suicide, after throwing a lavish party at her estate to give her society friends the impression that her banishment did not affect her too much. A deceptive appearance, however, does not change the underlying reality. Zweig’s portrayal of this woman’s despair while walking alone by candlelight through the rooms of a dark empty chateau, with only the occasional appearance of a servant to do something for her, is very vivid.

Moonbeam Alley is about a man whose pride and avarice drove his own wife away. Despite his repentance and willingness to reconcile, she prefers to support herself as a prostitute, for independence, and also to humiliate him. The atmosphere of this story is reminiscent of a film noir movie—all dark alleys, seedy tenements, and moody, dimly lighted little bars that are all but impossible to recognize in the daytime, since they only come alive at night.

Winter Is Coming, by Garry Kasparov

I'm old enough to remember watching the demonstrations and other events associated with the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, but my understanding of what followed (the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, the rise of Vladimir Putin and his stand-in Dmitri Medvedev, aggression in Georgia, the Ukraine, and other places), has been quite sketchy. So I'm glad someone in my history book group suggested this for a book of the month selection. It's very informative about Russian political developments from the 1990's to the mid 2010's and really helped me to make sense of them.

The Dream of Gerontius, by Cardinal John Henry Newman

I listened to a talk by Dr. Peter Kreeft on YouTube called "10 Books No One Should Be Allowed To Die Without Reading", which he had expanded to 26 books, not being able to pick just 10, and this was one.  I can't thank Dr. Kreeft enough for recommending it.

It is a speculation by Cardinal Newman on what death, separation from one's body, traveling towards the presence of God, judgment, and the transition to purgatory might be like for a human soul.  The imagery and language used to describe Gerontius's and his guardian angel's journey are beautiful and otherworldly enough to suggest what it might be like to suddenly not have a body, or to experience time and space differently from what one is used to in this life.

Antigone, by Sophocles

Antigone is well known as the play that indicates that the Greeks understood the primacy of natural law over temporal laws enacted by governments.  Antigone is Oedipus’s elder daughter, who after burying her father, wishes to perform the burial rites for her brothers, both killed in the war.  The problem is that her uncle Creon has passed a law that prohibits anyone, from burying Polynices, her elder brother, seen as a traitor who made war against his own city. Antigone disobeys this law, on the grounds that the laws of the gods are more important than the laws of man, and suffers the consequences.  Like the other two plays, the narrative is simple and direct, the characters lifelike.

The Kreutzer Sonata, by Leo Tolstoy

Probably most people today (and apparently in Tolstoy’s day too) are victims of a particular kind of cognitive dissonance.  They think that they can live a dissolute lifestyle when young, indulging in a series of short-lived relationships where they view their partner as little more than an instrument of pleasure, then do a 180 degree turn on their wedding night to become the perfect, virtuous, considerate spouse who never loses sight of their husband or wife as a full human being just like themselves, to be treated with due respect.  In The Kreutzer Sonata, Tolstoy gives his answer to that proposition: Not. Going. To Happen. 

The protagonist, a wealthy young aristocrat named Pozdnyshev, dreams of the ideal marriage to a virtuous woman, while at the same time living it up with the other debauchees of his social circle.  When he finally does fall in love with a beautiful, virtuous woman and marries her, he finds that the corruption of mind and soul in which he has been marinating himself for years are impossible to get rid of, influencing his behavior and how he thinks about his wife, ultimately bringing them both to tragedy.

Love and the Dignity of Human Life, by Robert Spaemann

This is an interesting trio of essays by philosopher Robert Spaemann.  The first is on the many meanings and paradoxes of love, especially the tension between desirous love and beneficent love.  The second is on human dignity, particularly its inalienability when the person does not consent to its loss. The third on the modern concept of “brain death”—is it the same as the traditional concept of death, and can a “brain dead” person properly be considered dead?   

Since I have no philosophy training, I thought the book would probably be over my head, but Spaemann explains things very clearly.  Highly recommended to clear out the fog that results from the intentionally deceptive wording we are accustomed to using these days to lie to ourselves about reality in order to justify ethical shortcuts.

Oedipus at Colonus, by Sophocles

Of Sophocles’s three Theban plays, this is the one we didn’t read in high school.  It covers the end of Oedipus’s life, years after he has left Thebes, blind, and in shame because of the misfortune he brought to the city.  His two sons are at war over who will be the next king of Thebes, and his two daughters are really the only ones left he can rely on.  Having learned his lesson on how unwise it is to try to cheat fate, he is obedient to the prophecies when choosing his last resting place—at Colonus, near Athens—and resists entreaties from his two sons to settle near one of them, since there is a new prophecy that says that whomever Oedipus goes to live with will win the war.  I didn’t find this one as interesting as the other two plays in the series.

Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles

This is a re-read for me, as we read this for English class when I was in high school years ago.  Probably everyone knows the story of Oedipus and how he and everyone around him tried to cheat the prophecy of the oracle, and failed.  It packs a punch.  I don’t remember it being quite so dramatic and vivid when I read it the first time years ago.  Or maybe I just appreciate it better now since I’m reading it because I want to, not because a teacher is requiring it.

The Wild Duck, by Henrik Ibsen

This play makes one think about truth-telling, how it can be used for good or ill, and how good intentions can very well end in bad results.  While being honest is recognized as a morally good thing in general, one's motivations behind telling the truth and realistic expectations of likely consequences do matter when trying to judge whether or not it is a good thing to do in particular situations.

The wild duck, though silent, is in a way the most important character in the play.  Apparently they have a tendency, when shot, to plunge all the way down to the bottom of the water, get hold of the weeds that are found on the lake bed, and hang on tight to them until death, never coming back up to the surface.

Ibsen seems to indicate that life is like a lake scene.  The water is beautiful and smooth, while at the bottom lie all the weeds and junk that nobody wants to see and that people prefer to not think about.  But it's there all the same.  The "wild ducks" among us are those who are forced by others, well-intentioned or not, in the name of "honesty" to get down to the bottom of the lake to see all the debris.  But once they see it, they are unable to let go and live life on the surface as before, so the sight destroys them. 

Mumu, by Ivan Turgenev

This story made me cry! The Goodreads description says it is about the poverty and brutality of serfdom, but I didn't see anything like that in the story.

While Gerasim, as a serf, is not rich, he lives in comfortable enough circumstances and does not want for any material necessity, and neither do his fellow serfs, whether in the country or city.  Rather, Gerasim's problem is isolation and loneliness, brought about by his disability as a deaf-mute and the indifference of those around him, whether serf or free.

The laundress he courts does not return his affection, and it's only after she has spent a few years married to a drunk does she learn something: There's a difference between a man who tries, however awkwardly, to earn her affection and one to whom she has merely been given as an unsuccessful means to cure bad behavior. Big difference.

Gerasim's affection is only welcomed and returned with joy when he rescues a little dog named Mumu. She is the apple of his eye, his faithful shadow, his sole consolation in this life. She's the only one who appreciates him. An ill timed bark and momentary irritation from the old lady (mistress of the house), however, is enough to lead to Gerasim being forced to give her up too, in the most heart wrenching and irrevocable of ways, on top of everything else he's already given up.

The old lady is not a cruel or malicious woman; she is just thoughtless and self centered. She has been so long accustomed to her serfs' following orders, satisfying her wants that she has ceased to think of them as people. To her they're instruments. By the end of the story, she is surprised to find herself in the same spot as King David was, accused of taking away Uriah's one ewe lamb. (King David was surprised too).

Even the other serfs, who know perfectly well what Mumu means to Gerasim, and how capricious their mistress is, fail him. They could have pleaded his case to her or just helped him keep the dog out of her way until she was in a better mood. Instead, her word is law and they obey without question. They don't put themselves in Gerasim's place any more than she does, and putting themselves out for his sake even a little bit doesn't occur to them.

I can see how this story was good for consciousness raising among the Russian nobility of Turgenev's day toward the serfs. But its lessons still apply to our own time--we modern people who use legality as an excuse to dispense with morality, who are becoming accustomed to think of each other in a utilitarian way as instruments rather than as persons.

First Love, by Ivan Turgenev

Excellently told story about a 16 year old boy's first experience and understanding of love with the seemingly unattainable young lady who has moved in next door... and his unlikely rival.  As with other books by Turgenev, the characters come across as very real such that you can lose yourself in the story.  Really enjoyed it.