Three from this Year

Look Who's Back
by Timur Vermes

In freshman Philosophy class, our professor described what would have been the reaction of the Greek Gods (Zeus, et. al) if they saw the image of who we worshiped these days. Jesus Christ is crucified, bloody, crowned with thorns, a powerless figure of pity. Zeus would have reacted, "Is that your God?" I chuckled. Timur Vermes works on the same premise in this book. Hitler wakes up in present-day Berlin and thinks that the lady in the park scooping her dog's poo is a lunatic. It's funny all throughout, and it's not lacking in historical insight. The truth is, the death toll on this "war on terror" led by America and its Allies almost makes Hitler's war a laughing matter.

Revolution
by Russell Brand

Brand himself concedes that this book is a line-up of ideas of other thinkers/experts such as Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Joseph Campbell, Che Guevara, Fawzi Ibrahim. He also builds upon concepts from the East, from Feminism and Socialism. He tells his own tale of addiction and poverty. He delves into details but he won't bore you. It's sometimes shocking and often entertaining, without compromising the efficacy of the heavy ideas he is introducing - some of the most urgent and relevant in our time. I take this comedian very seriously. I think it helps that I read the electronic version along with the audio version. I had 37 pages worth of annotations, the most in everything I read this year.

The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway

I'm still catching up on what I should have read at an earlier part of my life. Hemingway makes machismo sound so romantic. "Now you are getting confused in the head, he thought. You must keep your head clear. Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man." I still love him.