Rating: 6.7/10. Relatively short novel of 150 pages, won Pulitzer prize. A bridge collapses in Peru and kills 5 people, and a priest tries to piece together the lives of the victims and determine why they were chosen to die. They include an old woman whose daughter left for Spain, a twin brother grieving for…
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Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Rating: 8.3/10. First novel by Kurt Vonnegut that I enjoyed. Although only about 300 pages, it has over 100 chapters, each with 2-3 pages. The story begins with a narrator trying to write a biography of scientist Felix Hoenikker, and interviews his three children and the people who knew Felix. However, in doing so, he…
No Fears, No Excuses by Larry Smith
Rating: 7.3/10. No Fears, No Excuses: What You Need To Do To Have A Great Career by Larry Smith Larry Smith is famous in Waterloo for being a really good Economics professor who also has a TED talk advocating for the importance of pursuing your passion. This book starts off kind of the same way,…
High-Rise by J. G. Ballard
Rating: 7.5/10. This is kind of a dystopian sci-fi novel. It takes place in a large futuristic apartment building with thousands of people, mostly professionals. In the beginning everyone gets along fine, but tensions arise as tenants mistreat each other. Soon elevators and electricity stop working, garbage starts piling up, and eventually the whole place…
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Rating: 8.0/10. The novel is written first-person from the perspective of a dog Enzo. The dog’s owner is a racecar driver Denny Swift, and he has a daughter Zoe and a wife Eve. Eve eventually dies of brain cancer and the grandparents fight a long legal custody battle over the custody of Zoe, believing that…