2024

Missive #211 Published 30 January 2024

The novel that Aldous Huxley himself thought was his most successful at "fusing idea with story," Time Must Have a Stop is part of Huxley's lifelong attempt to explore the dilemmas of twentieth-century man and to create characters who, though ill-equipped to solve the dilemmas, all go stumbling on in their painfully serious comedies (in this novel we have the dead atheist who returns in a seance to reveal what he has learned after death but is stuck with a second-rate medium who garbles his messages).

Missive #208 Published 27 January 2024

This book may be widely read by high level Chinese political figures and bureaucrats but it is American political figures that need to be reading it. Tocqueville wrote about America after his visit in the 1830 and is frequently quoted but Wang Huning has not been. It is sad that he has not. He had more to say about America in the 1980s and what its future might be than what Tocqueville said. I recommend this book!

Missive #206 Published 24 January 2024

George MacDonald Fraser—beloved for his series of Flashman historical novels—offers an action-packed memoir of his experiences in Burma during World War II. Fraser was only 19 when he arrived there in the war's final year, and he offers a first-hand glimpse at the camaraderie, danger, and satisfactions of service.

Missive #203 Published 17 January 2024

This is the last book in the trilogy but Severin has some more novels that I will read. I think I like his novels better than his later non-fiction.

Missive #202 Published 15 January 2024

I liked this book! Perhaps it is because I am of a like age and can empathize with the author's writing. He wrote one more book that was published posthumously that I will read. Then perhaps read some of his earlier books but not his poetry although you may like that as well.