Hilton Head Island: books read January-June

 I read more even than usual the first half of this year.  I don't know why that happened, but it did.

Of the fifty-one books--if I have counted correctly--thirteen were of poetry, twenty-one were fiction, and the remaining seventeen were non-fiction.  Four were written by me.  Five were written by the somewhat better known Emile Zola, the last five in his monumental Rougon/Macquart series.  This is the third time I have read THE DEBACLE, which is one of my favorites, but I also very much enjoyed MONEY, about stock market speculation and manipulation, and the final, DOCTOR PASCAL, which is partly an illicit love story and partly about the conflict between science and religion with a final act of revenge that obliterates a man's life work.

This was also the third time I have read MOBY DICK.  I have in the past thought it about three-quarters a great novel that would be improved by having the other quarter cut, but on this reading I did not mind so much that quarter.  Perhaps I am become more accepting in my old age.  Or perhaps less discerning.

And it was the third time I read THE LEOPARD which is a great novel that could not find a publisher during the author's lifetime.  I enjoyed it as much as ever.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD is a work of great original imagination.  SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE is justly famous about the bombing of Dresden and in my reading matched with the equally troubling non-fiction THE FIRE AND THE DARKNESS about the same event.

I also very much enjoyed GATES OF FIVE about the battle of Thermopylae and John Gardner's retelling of the legend, GRENDEL.

In non-fiction, in addition to THE FIRE AND THE DARKNESS, I found most interesting THE STRATEGISTS, which is about Churchill, Hitler, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Stalin, as they made and were made by war; THE DAYS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION which presents facts far different than expected; LAWRENCE IN ARABIA which details the betrayals of him and the peoples of the Middle East by French and British WW1 politicians that are still causing havoc today.

With the exception of MODERN AMERICAN POETRY edited by Louis Untermeyer, all the books of poetry are worthwhile.  Untermeyer was a famous editor, but MODERN AMERICAN POETRY dates from about 1920 and includes many poets who may have had reputations then, but whom time has justly forgotten.  However it did bring to my attention Eunice Tietjens and the most unexpected book so far this year, her PROFILES FROM CHINA SKETCHES IN FREE VERSE OF PEOPLE AND THINGS SEEN IN THE INTERIOR.

PROFILES FROM CHINA was first published in 1917 and portrays a China far different from that of present times.  It is available in a free edition from Amazon with such bad formatting that I gladly paid $5 for one that is better.  I think it also may be free from Project Gutenberg.  PROFILES FROM CHINA is difficult to characterize, so I won't.  I found it original and I will soon read it again.  You might give it a try.