A Season of Reading: From Murakami’s Early Works to Science Classics

This quarter’s reading list spans a wide range of genres—from novels and memoirs to biographies and popular science—offering a mix of new discoveries and welcome re-reads. The selections reflect a mix of personal taste, educational goals, and a search for both entertainment and insight.

Fiction: Murakami's Origins and Post-Apocalyptic Journeys

The reading period included three books by Haruki Murakami, providing a clear view of his stylistic evolution. Hear the Wind Sing, his first novel, felt like a rough draft for the later Norwegian Wood due to their striking similarities in theme and tone. While not particularly enjoyable on its own, it’s short enough to offer valuable context into the origins of his unique style. Similarly, Pinball was an amusing but not outstanding early work, displayed in his familiar style of young characters drifting from nothing to nothing, seemingly surviving only on beer and cigarettes.

The third book, A Wild Sheep Chase, confirms that some of his plots are, by design, extremely strange. The narrative is highly incoherent; the book is very Murakami-esque but should not be read with an expectation of complete logical consistency.

In a starkly different vein, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road presents a haunting post-apocalyptic tale of a father and son scavenging for essentials on their way to the Atlantic coast. The narrative is troubling and well-written, though it sometimes feels tedious and strains credibility with details like endless rain despite years without sun.

Non-Fiction Narratives: Biography and Memoir

Robert Caro’s Means of Ascent, the second volume in his biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, covers the years 1941–1948 and focuses on the dramatic 1948 senate race. The writing is masterful, simple yet insightful, and vividly exposes the corruption of politics in the story of how a narrow victory of 87 votes out of a million earned LBJ the nickname “landslide Lyndon.”

The Return by Hisham Matar is a memoir of the author’s journey back to Libya after the fall of Qaddafi’s regime to uncover the fate of his father, a political dissident who was imprisoned for many years. It is a good book, though more was expected from a Pulitzer Prize winner.

In The Old Way, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas shares her family’s experiences living with the !Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in the 1950s. The account of their way of life, which remained largely unchanged for millennia, is fascinating, a quality enhanced by the author-narrated audiobook, where her fluency in the Juǀʼhoan language adds authenticity. The author’s tendency to idealize the !Kung compared to other, more “modern” groups is a minor flaw in an otherwise wonderful narrative.

Explorations in History and Science

The list includes two notable science history books. Feynman’s Lost Lecture by David and Judith Goodstein explores a Caltech lecture where Richard Feynman presented a more accessible, geometry-based proof of Kepler’s first law of planetary motion. The book provides helpful background to clarify Feynman’s lecture-bound presentation, making it a fun reading experience that offers insight into a great scientist’s thinking.

In a Different Key: The Story of Autism by John Donvan and Caren Zucker is a detailed account of the condition’s history since its initial diagnosis, interwoven with touching personal stories. The book excels in its historical scope but could be strengthened by a deeper exploration of research on treatments that emerged after the behavioral therapy breakthroughs of the 1980s, as it doesn't fully detail the impact of the research it describes.

Classic Guides and Lighthearted Reads

Two classic publications were revisited for their educational merit. Mathematics for the Nonmathematician by Morris Kline remains a strong survey of elementary mathematics, praised for its motivating real-life examples, despite its dated references from the 1960s (like imperial units and outdated computing speeds). Similarly, One Two Three... Infinity by George Gamow, is a nice popular book on physics and math whose content is still relevant, even with its 1960 publication date.

Lighter reads included Bush Boys by Mayne Reid, a re-discovery of a childhood favorite about an elephant-hunting family in South Africa. While its plot is flat and modern sensibilities may find the historical context distasteful, the book’s clear focus on showcasing African wildlife makes it a delightful read for young audiences. Also noted as a very nice read, My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell humorously recounts the author’s teen years on Corfu, mixing his passion for naturalism with light-hearted tales of his family's odd behaviors.

Re-reads

This season also included several pleasant re-reads with family, including Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Katie Hafner and Mathew Lyon, Code by Charles Petzold, and Cosmos by Carl Sagan. The latter was a read-aloud project with a daughter that took over a year, finally accelerating with the COVID lockdown.