First, use what you’ve got to put food in your face. If there’s left over, acquire suitable shelter. If there’s some left, buy a book.
PROMPT: Budgeting
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Category Archives: Books
BOOK: “The General in His Labyrinth” by Gabriel García Márquez
The General in His Labyrinth by Gabriel García MárquezMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – Penguin
This is a work of historical fiction by Gabriel García Márquez that tells the story of the last days of Simón Bolívar as the revolutionary hero attempted to flee Latin America toward exile in Europe. (Bolívar led a big chunk of Latin America to independence from Spain and ruled over Gran Colombia — a country that included Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and parts of other adjacent countries.) The story covers a trip up the Magdalena River from Colombia’s interior to the coast and on to Santa Marta, where his trip (and life) would end. [FYI: The title comes from words Bolívar spoke slightly before his death when he was putting together his will in which he said, “…How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?”]
There is some contention about the degree to which the book is historical fiction verses a historical account. It seems there are some fictionalized elements, but because García Márquez leans into the degree to which Bolívar was quite ill during this period the book may be more accurate in some ways than more hagiographic accounts.
The events of the story took place in 1830, and the times present an interesting contrast to our own as Bolívar travels to places that have not yet gotten the news that he is no longer President and treat his visit as one would that of a head of state.
At the book’s end there is a brief epilogue by the author as well as an extensive timeline of Bolívar’s life. The latter is quite useful because this book covers only a short period of time, though one of is great interest.
I’d highly recommend this for readers who enjoy literary fiction and / or are interested in Latin American history.
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PROMPT: Books
I’ve always gotten bogged down in Joyce’s Ulysses. There are some books you need to be in the right headspace to attack.
I should probably read the Bible and the Koran, speaking of literature I’ve never had the mental energy to take up.
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BOOK: “Four Chapters on Freedom” by Patanjali [Commentaries by Satyananda Saraswati]
Four Chapters on Freedom: Commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Satyananda SaraswatiMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher – Yoga Publications Trust
This book holds the Bihar School of Yoga commentaries on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In addition to providing each Sutra in Sanskrit, a Romanized transliteration, a word-by-word literal translation, and a readable free translation into English, the book offers a commentary for each Sutra. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali consist of just 196 lines of Sanskrit, explaining the nature of yoga and how it is to be practiced. Because the Sutras are so sparse and open to varied interpretations, a commentary is essential and one’s learning experience is only as good as the translation and commentary. There are many English language commentaries on Patanjali’s Sutras available, but I don’t think one can do any better than this one.
In general, I have found the publications put out by the Yoga Publications Trust of the Bihar School to be as useful as they come. Their books are pragmatic, focused, and readable.
This book does, by necessity, use a fair number of Sanskrit terms repeatedly because there are not English words for many of the key concepts and to try to put them into English would be tiresome and confusing. However, there is a glossary at the end of the book (in addition to an index) to help the reader negotiate this Sanskrit terminology. The appendices also include a key to help English language readers with the pronunciation of Sanskrit terms. There are also appendices with the sutras written out in Sanskrit and Romanized transliteration in list form.
This book is well worth reading, whether one has read other commentaries on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali or not.
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BOOK: “Wildness” by Lydia Willsky-Ciollo
Wildness: Henry David Thoreau and the Making of an American Theology by Lydia Willsky-CiolloMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher — University of Notre Dame Press
Release Date: March 1, 2026
Willsky-Ciollo argues in this book that Thoreau built a uniquely American theology with nature at its core, a theology that didn’t just draw on Greco-Roman philosophy and Abrahamic religion (as other schools of thought have) but also on Indian ideas of both the South Asian and Native American varieties. (The book speaks more extensively to the latter.)
For a scholarly work, this book is readable and doesn’t require jargon proficiency or any special academic background. I can’t say I found it compelling to think of Thoreau’s teachings as a theology (rather than a philosophy, or a strain of Transcendentalism.) That said, to someone outside the field, I don’t think that is a particularly interesting question, given that scholarly disciplines are inherently subjectively defined and prone to mutability. What’s more important to me is that I did gain numerous insights from this book, particularly regarding Thoreau’s unfinished final work Wild Fruits (which is discussed in some detail,) and Thoreau’s views on American Indians and their influence on his worldview.
If you’re interested in Thoreau, and looking for some insight that one might not gain from reading his most well-known works, this is a book well worth reading.
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BOOK: “Forty-Three Ways of Looking at Hemingway” by Jeffrey Meyers
Forty-Three Ways of Looking at Hemingway by Jeffrey MeyersMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Website – LSU Press
I enjoyed this approach to biography. Instead of telling Hemingway’s life story chronologically or even via some other form of overarching arc, Meyers gives us forty-three chapters that each shine a light on a different facet of Hemingway. In many cases, these facets are Hemingway’s relationships to other people: writers, artists, wives, and other personalities. In other cases, the facets are events or concepts, such as his suicide, war, achievements, etc.
This approach can, on occasion, lead to repetition, but I find repetition that is not overbearing to be useful in taking in key information.
If you are interested in what made Hemingway tick, I’d highly recommend that you read this book.
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BOOK: “Wisecracks” by David Shoemaker
Wisecracks: Humor and Morality in Everyday Life by David ShoemakerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher Site — U of Chicago Press
In this book, a Cornell University philosopher considers questions at the intersection of morality and humor, particularly with respect to digs, burns, and other forms of wisecracking humor. Shoemaker’s view is that generally these forms of humor are not morally questionable, but even where they are they can serve a social function. The book reflects in depth upon what might make a joke morally questionable and why it is unreasonable to accept the tautological argument that wisecracks are morally wrong because they poke fun at others. In addition, the book delves into what service wisecracking humor provides as well as investigating how the pros may outweigh the cons.
I suspect most readers will not expect a laugh riot from a book put out by a philosopher, and — in this case — they would be particularly right to not do so. The book repeatedly draws on a few examples, examples which are often of the inside joke variety (i.e. not hilarious to third parties.) But if you’re reading a philosophy book to laugh, you’re in the wrong place. One would also be wrong to think one has a minefield map, showing when, where, and how to safely wisecrack, by the book’s end. The author clearly recognizes the challenge of attempts to clarify the landscape. Whether he thinks he’s succeeded in doing so, I couldn’t say, but the landscape remained messy to my mind, even having completed the book.
I found the book to present some thought-provoking ideas. My interest did wane in the book’s second half as it came to feel a bit more muddled and repetitive, but all-in-all I thought it was a book worth reading — if you’re interested in philosophy, morality, and ethics.
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BOOK: “Cajun Night Before Christmas” by Trosclair
Cajun Night Before Christmas by TrosclairMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site — Pelican Books
As it happens, I was just in New Orleans during Christmas and stumbled onto this book, which is well regarded regionally but pretty much unheard of beyond. It is essentially the poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” (a.k.a. “Twas the Night Before Christmas,”) but conveyed in the Cajun dialect, featuring a Santa that is a bit scruffier and who is transported by alligators rather than reindeer. It adds a bit of humor as well as regional flavor to the poem. As one would expect, it’s illustrated in the style of a children’s story book.
If you find yourself in bayou country during the holiday season, I’d highly recommend you give it a read.
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BOOK: “The Answer Is No” by Fredrik Backman
The Answer Is No by Fredrik BackmanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site -Amazon
This short story / novella is hilarious. It’s the tale of a happily asocial protagonist, Lucas, who wants nothing more than to live a solitary apartment-dwelling existence, but who is pulled ever deeper into social interaction through an absurd series of events in his apartment complex. The story mixes a heavy dose of bureaucratic absurdism into this plot of curmudgeon interrupted.
I’d highly recommend this book for readers of humorous fiction.
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BOOK: “Yoga Also for the Godless” by Sri M.
Yoga Also for the Godless by Sri M.My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – Penguin India
One common philosophical question regarding yoga is to what degree it is, in itself, religious. This has been argued by various sects from within Yoga, with some seeing Yoga without belief as oxymoronic and others arguing that the metaphysics of Yoga is essentially Samkhya (an atheistic philosophy.) Outsiders to Yoga have also had their say, as with the Roman Catholic Church telling its practitioners that the practice of Yoga is incongruent with that of Catholicism.
This book’s author takes on the question by examining what yoga is according to historic texts, specifically the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and then considering whether the practice that is laid out necessitates a belief in a deity, deities, or the supernatural. As one can tell from the title, Sri M (born Mumtaz Ali) argues that belief in divinity is not essential to the practice of Yoga.
Those who’ve read various commentaries on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras will find this book at best familiar and at worst just another set of Sutra commentaries. Sri M’s book is not just Yoga Sutra commentaries, but that does take up a fair amount of the page space. The early chapters focus more on the thesis question.
If you’re interested in the question of whether Yoga is inherently theistic, this is a fine book to investigate. It’s a quick read and draws heavily on sutras and scriptures (and, thus, is not just the author’s opinion.)
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Tiger Riding for Beginners 