Last month I left my comfort zone of science to read Less by Andrew Sean Greer. It won the Pulitzer Prize for covering American life. The story is about Arthur Less, a failed novelist about to turn fifty. Less is confronted by his ex-boyfriend Freddy of the past nine years now engaged to someone else and invites Less to his wedding. So what does Less do? What anyone in his position would do; accept invitations and begin a peripatetic journey of literary events in Morocco, Mexico, Paris, Japan, and India. Along the way Less encounters a near-death experience in Berlin, almost falls in love with a Spanish lover in Paris, loses his suitcase, and somewhere along the way he celebrates turning fifty. This story is a funny heartfelt tour of a man who has lost everything, even his dignity while searching for an answer. I enjoyed discovering Less on his hapless and funny tour of being human.
While nearing the end of reading Less I began reading my next book. Hooked after watching the first season of A Discovery of Witches on Sundance Now, and having to wait for the second season that begins next year I decided to pick up Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness. It’s the second in a series called the All Souls Trilogy and picks up right where the first season left. The story is escapism at its best encompassing Diana a witch, Matthew a professor who happens to be a vampire, and some daemons. It’s not another glittering vampire love story, not that there’s anything wrong with that, after all, I read and watched that series as well. All Souls leans more on a historical nature. Historians and vampire lovers may find the All Souls Trilogy entertaining.
To even things out I bounced back to read more science, Reality is Not What It Seems by Carlo Rovelli. I’ve read his previous two books, both poetically explaining the universe. Rovelli has proven a staple of knowledge to enjoy and enlighten.
#menwhoread #science #literature #allsoulstrilogy #less
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