Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Giede’s book club

I have been asked again for book recommendations, with the additional request being I point out some of my favorite fiction as well. Here then are some of favorite works from my reading over last year.
col-giede.06.jpg

I have been asked again for book recommendations, with the additional request being I point out some of my favorite fiction as well. Here then are some of favorite works from my reading over last year.

On the non-fiction side, I have finally finished Winston S. Churchill's The Second World War, which is usually published as a six volume set.

Given the size and scope of the works, it is hard to briefly assess here; what must be said is that given the last lion's firsthand experience, incredible style and genuine feeling for all characters involved, his work is indispensable to understanding the war properly and how it might have been prevented.

G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy is a short work defending the Christian faith as understood by the apostle's creed. Although originally published more than a century ago, his arguments in favour of miracles and religion over secularism and materialism are just as relevant today, perhaps more so.

For the traditionalist whose soul needs reinvigoration after the spiritual exhaustion of 2015's secular crusades, Chesterton's brilliant writing has plenty of metaphysical food for thought.

If you're looking for essays that cover American political topics, one cannot go wrong with any collection of essays written by Gore Vidal. I am currently reading The Last Empire and there are several other collections that can be easily found online.

While the late Vidal is yet to be canonized by an official collected works, his analysis is lucid and prescient. Vidal also wrote excellent novels, the two of which I have read are Lincoln and Myra Breckinridge.

During 2015, I began to read a good deal of popular fiction, and found that not everything that is popular is necessarily terrible (though it is still a fairly good rule often enough).

My favorite popular novels were The Book of Lost Things, The Martian and Gone Girl.

Obviously, the latter two novels have been made into feature length films, neither of which I've seen yet and, while I'm not the kind of person to tell you that books beat movies, I would highly recommend reading both novels for oneself.

Furthermore, if you are having a tough time picking a novel, Books and Company has a very intelligent program called "blind date with a book." Books that the staff recommend are wrapped in butcher's paper, and given a few sentences of introduction in sharpie. I have purchased several of these books blindly and have not been disappointed with any of them.

Finally, on the higher literature side of things, one can't go wrong with either Wise Blood or The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor.

During her less than 40 years on earth, O'Connor managed to produce both these brilliant novels which while widely read in the United States are too often missed here in Canada. Challenging for believers and non-believers alike, the novels can be purchased separately or with all her works in the Library of America edition.

Hope you enjoy the recommendations and furnish your shelf with some of the titles mentioned above.

The weather outside is certainly conducive to good reading! And, of course, Happy New Year to all!