Logan's Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnston
In this world, no one ages: everyone is euthanized at 22 to avoid becoming old. It seems the novel follows some characters who try to escape this fate.
(Prescribed for a cure for the Horror of Aging)
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
I have this book, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. The Novel Cure says it is about an old man who needs to rely on his children to care for him. The first set do a bad job of it; later he is passed on to other family who don't have much but do care for him. It's about making sure seniors have dignity.
(Prescribed to address Aging Parents)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
A man catches a fish that he can't pull in, and hangs on to it as he is dragged out into the ocean. But the appeal of this book is in its "simple, calming prose" and the old man's optimistic acceptance.
(Prescribed to cure Anger)
(read 10/2015)
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
This seems to be the story of a con man with a love for life. "By the end, you'll be up and about with a bounce in your step, throwing caution to the wind in your determination to have a hand in fate, setting you on a more spontaneous and proactive - if slightly reckless - new tack."
(Prescribed as a cure for Apathy)
Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer
This is the story of a woman with alopecia (no hair), who is comfortable in her own skin. She spends some time in a wig trying to fit in with those around her, but feels re-liberated when everyone discovers her secret and likes her for who she is.
(Prescribed for Baldness)
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Saleem is born on the day India achieves its independence (August 15, 1947), and the story follows both his development and that of his country.
(Recommended reading for Birthday Blues, while pulling an all-nighter on your birthday)
(read 02/2021)
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
A woman offers to let a friend stay with her while undergoing cancer treatment. However, being a caretaker takes a great toll on her. This novel acknowledges that the bystanders suffer along with the patients, and offers a glimpse inside their pain.
(Prescribed when Caring for Someone with Cancer)
The Ten Best Novels for Thirtysomethings
London Fields by Martin Amis
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (read 05/2018)
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway
The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
The Rector's Daughter by F. M. Mayor
Miss Mackenzie by Anthony Trollope
All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
And a thought-provoking consideration of Procrastination:
"Why do today what can be left undone until tomorrow? Because every day that you leave a task undone it grows bigger and the motivation for doing it gets smaller.
Procrastination, or the art of avoidance, has nothing whatsoever to do with laziness, or even busyness. Its causes are emotional. Quite simply (and, one could argue, quite sensibly), the procrastinator avoids those tasks which, consciously or subconsciously, he associates with uncomfortable emotions, such as boredom, anxiety, or fear of failure. The problem with allowing an uncomfortable emotion to stand in your way is that, once avoided, tasks that were probably quite achievable to begin with grow larger both in our imaginations - and, often, in actuality - until they loom over us in such an oppressive way that they become worth procrastinating about. And while we're busy procrastinating and avoiding those uncomfortable emotions, untold opportunities for happiness and success - whole lives, in fact - pass by.
By procrastinating, you are allowing your negative emotions to become obstacles to an otherwise productive and forward-flowing life. Whether it's anxiety or fear that accompanies the contemplation of the task at hand, put out that hand and greet your emotions one by one. Invite them to come in and sit down, and make themselves comfortable. Then begin your task in their company. Once you begin, you'll find they don't hang around very long; in fact, they'll probably get up and leave immediately. And when you're close to finishing, you'll look up and discover far more pleasant emotional companions sitting in their place, waiting to celebrate with you when you're done."
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
A woman offers to let a friend stay with her while undergoing cancer treatment. However, being a caretaker takes a great toll on her. This novel acknowledges that the bystanders suffer along with the patients, and offers a glimpse inside their pain.
(Prescribed when Caring for Someone with Cancer)
(read 12/2015)
The Sickness by Alberto Barrera Tyszka
A doctor diagnoses his father with cancer, and battles with the right time and place to tell him.
(Prescribed when Caring for Someone with Cancer)
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
A boy is teased and bullied because his mother has cancer.
(Also Prescribed when Caring for Someone with Cancer)
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I have read this novella before, but I was struck by what they had to say about it: "If you lived on a planet as small as the Little Prince's planet, Asteroid B-612 - so small that if you took a herd of elephants there you'd have to pile them on top of one another; so small that you'd have to take great care, after you'd finished washing and dressing each morning, to dig out any baobab shoots that had appeared overnight lest they take over your planet; so small that one day you watched the sunset forty-four times, just by moving your chair - you'd be living a simple life that would instil in you the habit of carefulness. You would water the one flower that grew on your planet every day, and never forget. You would take the trouble, before you went away on a trip, to rake out your volcanoes, even the extinct one. Because you would know that it's the time and care you spend on things that make them important. And if you didn't take this care, you'd wake up one day to find that everything around you was sad, feeling as unimportant as you made it feel."
(Prescribed as a cure for Carelessness)
The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna
This book deals with a modern woman having a baby, a past scientists discovering that infant mortality had often been caused by doctors not washing their hands, and a future society where people are bred in captivity and their eggs are harvested at age 18.
(Prescribed to accompany Childbirth)
The Sickness by Alberto Barrera Tyszka
A doctor diagnoses his father with cancer, and battles with the right time and place to tell him.
(Prescribed when Caring for Someone with Cancer)
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
A boy is teased and bullied because his mother has cancer.
(Also Prescribed when Caring for Someone with Cancer)
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I have read this novella before, but I was struck by what they had to say about it: "If you lived on a planet as small as the Little Prince's planet, Asteroid B-612 - so small that if you took a herd of elephants there you'd have to pile them on top of one another; so small that you'd have to take great care, after you'd finished washing and dressing each morning, to dig out any baobab shoots that had appeared overnight lest they take over your planet; so small that one day you watched the sunset forty-four times, just by moving your chair - you'd be living a simple life that would instil in you the habit of carefulness. You would water the one flower that grew on your planet every day, and never forget. You would take the trouble, before you went away on a trip, to rake out your volcanoes, even the extinct one. Because you would know that it's the time and care you spend on things that make them important. And if you didn't take this care, you'd wake up one day to find that everything around you was sad, feeling as unimportant as you made it feel."
(Prescribed as a cure for Carelessness)
The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna
This book deals with a modern woman having a baby, a past scientists discovering that infant mortality had often been caused by doctors not washing their hands, and a future society where people are bred in captivity and their eggs are harvested at age 18.
(Prescribed to accompany Childbirth)
(read 11/2020)
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
Two best friends and neighbours have a falling-out, and this book addresses both points of view and the grief caused by the lost friendship.
(Prescribed for Falling Out With Your Best Friend)
The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
This book slows us down to consider the glory of food.
(Prescribed as a cure for Gluttony)
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
A poor couple finds a valuable pearl, but the sudden riches threaten to destroy them.
(Prescribed to prevent Greed)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Of course I've heard of this book, but here is a plot summary that will probably be helpful when I get around to reading it: Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov murders an old woman for her money (justifying this because of her employment as a pawnbroker). He ends up killing her sister too when she gets in the way, and he takes their money. He is soon filled with remorse. When another person confesses to the crime and lets Rodion off the hook, this does not clear his conscience.
(Prescribed to address Guilt)
Little Children by Tom Perrotta
A young stay-at-home mom is bored by the limited scope of conversation between young mothers, so she pretends to doing a sociological study on these women, to assure herself she is not merely one of them.
(Prescribed for Being a Housewife)
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
Two best friends and neighbours have a falling-out, and this book addresses both points of view and the grief caused by the lost friendship.
(Prescribed for Falling Out With Your Best Friend)
The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
This book slows us down to consider the glory of food.
(Prescribed as a cure for Gluttony)
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
A poor couple finds a valuable pearl, but the sudden riches threaten to destroy them.
(Prescribed to prevent Greed)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Of course I've heard of this book, but here is a plot summary that will probably be helpful when I get around to reading it: Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov murders an old woman for her money (justifying this because of her employment as a pawnbroker). He ends up killing her sister too when she gets in the way, and he takes their money. He is soon filled with remorse. When another person confesses to the crime and lets Rodion off the hook, this does not clear his conscience.
(Prescribed to address Guilt)
Little Children by Tom Perrotta
A young stay-at-home mom is bored by the limited scope of conversation between young mothers, so she pretends to doing a sociological study on these women, to assure herself she is not merely one of them.
(Prescribed for Being a Housewife)
(read 12/2015)
I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch
Everyone - including his wife - recognises James is a missing sculptor named Anatol, everyone except himself. "As the truth gradually emerges, we are given a rare glimpse into the fragility of our relationship to ourselves."
(Prescribed to address Identity Crisis)
Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen
In this book, a man believes that the woman posing as his wife is not really her - she has been replaced by a look-alike (although she denies it). "It hints a the constructed nature of identity. On some level, all of us must invent who we are."
(Prescribed to address Identity Crisis)
New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani
A badly-beaten man awakes to discover he has no memories, no idea who he is, and no language. He wears a Finnish nametag, so someone begins to re-teach him Finnish. "But what if this man wasn't really Finnish in the first place? What will he become in a different language? What is it that makes him himself?" I am fascinated by the idea that the language we speak affects who we are.
(Also Prescribed to address Identity Crisis)
(read 12/2015)
Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice
This is the story (set in Australia) of a young girl who has two imaginary friends named Pobby and Dingan. Her brother mocks her for this, but when she says her friends have died and becomes ill from the resulting grief, he plays along with her former fantasies and puts up "Lost" signs for her invisible friends.
(Prescribed as a cure for Being Judgemental)
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Described as "as close to watching TV as literature gets," this book and its sequels sound like a feel-good saga of San Francisco friendship, reminding me of Friends, Three's Company, How I Met Your Mother, etc.
(Prescribed to aid with Loneliness)
(read 01/2020)
Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
An elderly Korean woman gets lost in the big city while visiting her children. This book illustrates South Korea's rural life, and the generational gap growing between rural parents and their urban children.
(Prescribed to explore Being Lost)
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
A Midwest girl attends an upscale East Coast boarding school. The culture shift is drastic enough that she doesn't entirely understand her surroundings: not only does she lack knowledge and vocabulary that are natural to those around her, but she doesn't know what counts as being polite in this new setting. "As she learns, manners don't exist in a vacuum; they're determined by where you are, what you're doing, and what sort of people you find yourself among. When it comes to manners, context is all."
(Prescribed to address Bad Manners)
(read 09/2021)
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim
A number of women in the 1920s, strangers who are unsatisfied in their married lives, take a holiday together in the Mediterranean. As they relax and grow, they begin to appreciate what waits for them back at home.
(Prescribed for Being Married)
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
A man loses his memory after a knock on the head. He seems to still have language skills, but simple tasks like eating seem foreign to him. "Remainder toys with the philosophical question of what really makes us who we are. Our memories, the novel suggests, resemble fluid archival footage in our heads, which we change and reconstruct over the years into a story that usefully explains who we were and, more important, who we are now. We are constantly losing old memories and acquiring new ones. Identity may be memory, but if so, identity is also in flux."
(Prescribed to discuss Memory Loss)
The Blue Flowers by Penelope Fitzgerald
Although there wasn't much about the plot that drew me in, but this is supposed to be a very smart, well-written book.
(Prescribed to cure Mental Stagnation)
The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono
This is a peaceful book about a man who plants trees around his house in France, intended to combat stress with a slower pace of life and the dignity of manual labour.
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
A barren couple yearning for a child build a little snowman - who comes to life! This sounds like a charming, serious version of Frosty the Snowman.
(Prescribed to battle Sweating)
(read 02/2015)
Suggestions of things to record in a Reading Journal: "Dedicate one page to each book you read, and on the day you turn the last page write down the book's title and author, the date, and the place you read it. You might like to sum up the story in one headline-grabbing line: man murders pawnbroker, feels guilty for next five hundred pages, for example. Or you might opine at length on the motivations of a character you found particularly intriguing. You might also want to make a note of how the book left you feeling - uplifted or downhearted? Like taking a walk on the windy moors, or emigrating to New Zealand? If words don't come easily, use images to summarise your feelings, or give it marks out of ten, or write a list of words that you found in the book and liked.
I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch
Everyone - including his wife - recognises James is a missing sculptor named Anatol, everyone except himself. "As the truth gradually emerges, we are given a rare glimpse into the fragility of our relationship to ourselves."
(Prescribed to address Identity Crisis)
Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen
In this book, a man believes that the woman posing as his wife is not really her - she has been replaced by a look-alike (although she denies it). "It hints a the constructed nature of identity. On some level, all of us must invent who we are."
(Prescribed to address Identity Crisis)
New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani
A badly-beaten man awakes to discover he has no memories, no idea who he is, and no language. He wears a Finnish nametag, so someone begins to re-teach him Finnish. "But what if this man wasn't really Finnish in the first place? What will he become in a different language? What is it that makes him himself?" I am fascinated by the idea that the language we speak affects who we are.
(Also Prescribed to address Identity Crisis)
(read 12/2015)
Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice
This is the story (set in Australia) of a young girl who has two imaginary friends named Pobby and Dingan. Her brother mocks her for this, but when she says her friends have died and becomes ill from the resulting grief, he plays along with her former fantasies and puts up "Lost" signs for her invisible friends.
(Prescribed as a cure for Being Judgemental)
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Described as "as close to watching TV as literature gets," this book and its sequels sound like a feel-good saga of San Francisco friendship, reminding me of Friends, Three's Company, How I Met Your Mother, etc.
(Prescribed to aid with Loneliness)
(read 01/2020)
Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
An elderly Korean woman gets lost in the big city while visiting her children. This book illustrates South Korea's rural life, and the generational gap growing between rural parents and their urban children.
(Prescribed to explore Being Lost)
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
A Midwest girl attends an upscale East Coast boarding school. The culture shift is drastic enough that she doesn't entirely understand her surroundings: not only does she lack knowledge and vocabulary that are natural to those around her, but she doesn't know what counts as being polite in this new setting. "As she learns, manners don't exist in a vacuum; they're determined by where you are, what you're doing, and what sort of people you find yourself among. When it comes to manners, context is all."
(Prescribed to address Bad Manners)
(read 09/2021)
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim
A number of women in the 1920s, strangers who are unsatisfied in their married lives, take a holiday together in the Mediterranean. As they relax and grow, they begin to appreciate what waits for them back at home.
(Prescribed for Being Married)
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
A man loses his memory after a knock on the head. He seems to still have language skills, but simple tasks like eating seem foreign to him. "Remainder toys with the philosophical question of what really makes us who we are. Our memories, the novel suggests, resemble fluid archival footage in our heads, which we change and reconstruct over the years into a story that usefully explains who we were and, more important, who we are now. We are constantly losing old memories and acquiring new ones. Identity may be memory, but if so, identity is also in flux."
(Prescribed to discuss Memory Loss)
The Blue Flowers by Penelope Fitzgerald
Although there wasn't much about the plot that drew me in, but this is supposed to be a very smart, well-written book.
(Prescribed to cure Mental Stagnation)
The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono
This is a peaceful book about a man who plants trees around his house in France, intended to combat stress with a slower pace of life and the dignity of manual labour.
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
A barren couple yearning for a child build a little snowman - who comes to life! This sounds like a charming, serious version of Frosty the Snowman.
(Prescribed to battle Sweating)
(read 02/2015)
Suggestions of things to record in a Reading Journal: "Dedicate one page to each book you read, and on the day you turn the last page write down the book's title and author, the date, and the place you read it. You might like to sum up the story in one headline-grabbing line: man murders pawnbroker, feels guilty for next five hundred pages, for example. Or you might opine at length on the motivations of a character you found particularly intriguing. You might also want to make a note of how the book left you feeling - uplifted or downhearted? Like taking a walk on the windy moors, or emigrating to New Zealand? If words don't come easily, use images to summarise your feelings, or give it marks out of ten, or write a list of words that you found in the book and liked.
The Ten Best Novels for Thirtysomethings
London Fields by Martin Amis
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (read 05/2018)
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway
The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
The Rector's Daughter by F. M. Mayor
Miss Mackenzie by Anthony Trollope
All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
And a thought-provoking consideration of Procrastination:
"Why do today what can be left undone until tomorrow? Because every day that you leave a task undone it grows bigger and the motivation for doing it gets smaller.
Procrastination, or the art of avoidance, has nothing whatsoever to do with laziness, or even busyness. Its causes are emotional. Quite simply (and, one could argue, quite sensibly), the procrastinator avoids those tasks which, consciously or subconsciously, he associates with uncomfortable emotions, such as boredom, anxiety, or fear of failure. The problem with allowing an uncomfortable emotion to stand in your way is that, once avoided, tasks that were probably quite achievable to begin with grow larger both in our imaginations - and, often, in actuality - until they loom over us in such an oppressive way that they become worth procrastinating about. And while we're busy procrastinating and avoiding those uncomfortable emotions, untold opportunities for happiness and success - whole lives, in fact - pass by.
By procrastinating, you are allowing your negative emotions to become obstacles to an otherwise productive and forward-flowing life. Whether it's anxiety or fear that accompanies the contemplation of the task at hand, put out that hand and greet your emotions one by one. Invite them to come in and sit down, and make themselves comfortable. Then begin your task in their company. Once you begin, you'll find they don't hang around very long; in fact, they'll probably get up and leave immediately. And when you're close to finishing, you'll look up and discover far more pleasant emotional companions sitting in their place, waiting to celebrate with you when you're done."
