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"The World of Yesterday: Memoirs of a European" by Stefan Zweig is a book that is riven with elegy. Zwieg was the world's most popular author in the 1930s but, because he was Jewish, he was driven from Austria and ended his own life in exile in Brazil in 1942 after completing this book. The Second World War had not ended, though the tide was turning. In his memoir, Zweig reflects on his own life but mourns deeply for the lost of the world he loved and in which had invested so much of his soul. The book is raw and written entirely from memory (he had lost all of his papers in exile). The world could never be the same after all of the violence and destruction that Europe had experienced. This is not to say that the book is not entertaining. Zweig brings his signature wit and observations to the people and life he encountered. He was part of a flourishing pan-European literary community that had grander visions than politicians and demagogues. I really enjoyed reading this book. This particular edition gives good footnotes that explain more obscure references.

I have now read all three of Harari's books. And I found this to be the most interesting and infuriating. My biggest critique remains the same across all three books - he can see nuance in the places that are convenient (i.e., economy, technology) and simplicity in the places that are inconvenient to his arguments (i.e., religion). I think the kind of work Harari has done in illuminating big history and getting people to think deeply about global trends is commendable. I only hope that people read this as part of a larger conversation and not an entire worldview perfectly prepackaged. One should use his writings as a springboard for their own inquiries and analysis.

Note - I read this book a number of months ago and currently do not have the book in front of me for this review. I will update the review when I have a chance to look over the book.

Maugham has always been one of my favorite authors. I admire his love for his characters, his straight-forward prose, and his deep insights into the human condition. I liked "The Razor's Edge" and I enjoyed "The Painted Veil," but "Of Human Bondage" hit me as no novel has in very long time. It is one that I desperately wish that I had read when I was younger because I feel that its insights and epiphanies would have made my teens and twenties a much more engaging experience. In my mind, the novel is a masterpiece.

The novel follows Philip Carey from the age of eight to about thirty. Quite autobiographical but with numerous fictional flourishes, the novel is a classic bildungsroman (a coming-of-age novel). At first, I found the novel slow but its minute pacing and careful plotting are all towards a greater design. If I had to encapsulate its theme in one line, I would point to one from the beginning of the novel: "We love that which makes us suffer." Indeed, the novel is focused on the varied kinds of suffering the protagonist experiences throughout his life and how that suffering, while it may not have an intrinsically deeper meaning, nonetheless comes to be a part of the threads of our lives. We seek connections but feel that we, like Philip with his club foot, are somehow deformed and unworthy of love.

One criticism often laid against the book (and Maugham generally) is his portrayal of women. While some might say that his portrayal of Mildred, the uneducated waitress who becomes the obsessive object of Philip's one-sided affections, is sexist and one-dimensional. But I think the one-dimensional character is mostly intentional here. She is meant to be an object in Philip's imagination and her vapidness hides a person gripped by inadequacies and poverty of mind, material, and spirit.

If you have not read this novel, you must. Note passages that move you and make you think. I still find myself repeatedly returning to it. It may not be to everyone's taste, but I think that out of the the novels I've read by this author, it is the first that I can truly say deserves to be called a classic and is well-worth your time.

This a book I read a couple of years ago but many of its stories and elements have stuck with me. I have always been fascinated by transition points, especially in religions. The book is one of Dalrymple's early travel works and, funnily enough, it has nothing to do with India. However, you do see some of his later interests (i.e., Sufism) in the book. Overall, I liked elements of "From the Holy Mountain" but felt like the book did not cohere as well as it could have. The premise of the book is that the author decided to travel from Mount Athos in Greece to Southern Egypt along the path of a seventh century Byzantine monk. The monk traveled the Near East just before the rise of Islam. Dalrymple uses this journey to reflect on religious diversity and the ghost of the Christian and Byzantine world still present. It is best as a work of history though it also presents interesting commentary on current events in the region. The journey took place in 1994 (published in 1997) and some of his observations about the Kurdish regions in Turkey and the politics of archeology in Israel are still relevant and to me these were the strongest chapters. One particular find that I have seen cited in numerous other works on Christian history was Dalrymple stumbling upon a church in Edessa where scholars believe the congregation has preserved hymns and chants from the second century CE. But my heart broke when he describes how Syria is the best place for religious diversity in the Middle East which has now been lost in the Syrian Civil War. And ultimately I found the Egypt chapters to be a little underwhelming. Perhaps the book did not go as he had planned and he did not quite know how to wrap it up. I think it is not as strong as "City of Djinns" - a book I have more problems with the longer I live in India but I think that it is well-worth your time.

"My Antonia" by Willa Cather is one of the most beautiful novels I've ever read. It just completely captured my heart. Cather's prose is beautiful, especially her descriptions of the prairie, and her characters are so fully realized. A nearly perfect novel. The story is told from the perspective of a young man who grew up in late 19th century Nebraska and became friends with Antonia, a Bohemian immigrant with a deep spirit and joy for life despite numerous hardships. I do feel that this novel could have been saccharine or maudlin in the hands of many authors, especially a male author. But Cather tells a realistic story without the trappings of melodrama or romance that might make such novels tedious. "My Antonia" tells the story of immigrants but one that neither demonizes, pities, or emptily glorifies the immigrant experience in America - it talks about real people trying to make their way in a new place and tells their story with affection and admiration. This is my first Willa Cather novel and I definitely will be reading more in the future

The Mahabharata is one of the two main epics of Indian civilization (the other is the Ramayana). These two epics are part of the cultural lingua franca of Indian society - the characters, ideas, and situations inform so much about how Indians think and go about their lives. It is also the source of the Bhagvad Gita, considered by many to be the central religious text of Hinduism (a debatable notion that I don't have time to get into here but generally, the text holds a special place in modern India). The narrative follows the war between the Pandavas and the Kuruvas, two families who embody good and evil in the world, respectively. Though the Pandava's are destined to triumph over their cousins the Kuruvas, the course of victory is not smooth and is littered with shadows and moral ambiguity.

The stories are timeless and worth experiencing. However, the Mahabharata is also the longest epic poem ever written, with some versions having over 20 volumes. How lucky we are to have R.K Narayan's "The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic." In less than 200 pages, one of modern India's best authors distills the essence of the story into a readable and deeply moving work. It is a true testament to Narayan's strengths a writer. The story is moving and the philosophy deeply provoking, all of which come through Naryana's concise retelling. It is worth reading as one of the pillars of World Literature and a window into one of the world's great civilizations.