5 Great Books I Read in December '21

As we come to the end of the year, I wanted to share with you the five books that have really made an impact in this cold December. Yes, I like my seasonal reads, but there are books I have discovered this month that move beyond my wildest imaginations and I cannot believe I have been without them for so long. Hopefully, these books can have an impact on you as well. They are, at the end of the day, absolutely brilliant. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. They will be in no particular order. Have a great 2022 and I look forward to the new things I am going to bring - hopefully, giving my writing a leg-up a bit as well.

These books are in no particular order

5 Great Books I Read in December '21

The Lover, Wartime Notebooks and Practicalities by Marguerite Duras

A set of books which give way to a troubled personality, plagued by depression, betrayal, unfamiliarity, strangeness, alcoholism and heartbreak, this takes French Colonial narratives to the next level with her Indochinese book The Lover being practically the best of its kind. Wartime Notebooks are graphic in their depictions of sadness and longing, amazing in their depictions of other countries and ominous in their writing of mental state and emotion. I think I liked the section Practicalities the best in which Duras explains different topics in correlation to her life including: alcoholism, writing, death, men and so many more.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

I actually had this on my TBR for a while and the reason I didn't read it comes down to the fact that I simply forgot it was there. A Prayer for Owen Meany is about a boy called John and his strange friend Owen who one day throws a baseball and it hits John's mother on the head and kills her. As John forgives him, he realises there is so much more to Owen as Owen begins to have dreams about his death. Through repeating years in school all the way to joining the army, there are so many things to uncover about this strange and ominous man that John cannot even imagine.

W; or the Memory of Childhood by Georges Perec

This book was transformative to me. It was like reading someone's worst nightmare. Starting off with a shipwreck and working its way into a puzzle and allegory for the Nazi Death Camps of World War 2 where the author's mother was murdered horribly, this book gives you every reason to be angry, upset, horrified and most of all completely confounded. I found this book to grind me down like sandpaper was rubbing on my brain. Beautifully written, it still simply saddens you to the point of no return.

The Sleepwalkers by Arthur Koestler

An anatomy of human knowledge, we look to the cosmos to see what we have found over the course of time. From Pythagoras and his theory of heliocentralism to Plato and Aristotle scrapping it and starting from scratch, from Coppernicus to Isaac Newton, we see through the eyes of some of the greatest minds to study cosmology and we look at how we as humans have changed and shaped the term of reason whilst challenging and reinstating various pieces of knowledge into our psyches. A beautiful book, long and arduous to read - but well worth it in the end.

Ravelstein by Saul Bellow

I know. You are all aware on the topic of my feelings for Saul Bellow and how boring I find The Adventures of Augie March, Henderson the Rain King and Herzog. But, I have to say this work Ravelstein is a brilliant book. I seem to enjoy either very very late Saul Bellow, or the first books he wrote (for example: Dangling Man). But Ravelstein, about a man who is about to write the memoirs of another man based on a promise, is a book about prosperous friendship, brilliant characters and last, dying wishes of a man who has been an unforgettable figure to everyone he has ever come into contact with. Based on real people and a real story, Ravelstein unravels the sadness and grief behind witnessing someone so incredible dying of the AIDS virus.

Honorable Mentions:

• Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
• The Little Demon by Fyodor Sologub
• The Way of the Pilgrim by Anonymous
• The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni

Conclusion

The only thing I can think of when it comes to a conclusion is that I hope the next year is just as amazing as this one has been for my reading.