Literary Quote I Like

You know, one thing really mystifies me about you crackers. The way good Christian white Americans treated the black man in the ‘50s we’re lucky we have one city left standing, and Martin Luther King was a man who could have said, all right, people, go to it, burn this country down. But he didn’t. And all you can do after some white trash shot him, is run him into the ground.
--O’Hanrahan in Wilton Barnhardt's Gospel

Literary Quote I Like

So much bad theology and empty talk about faith over works. Better the dispirited cynic complaining as she dishes free food in the soup kitchen than the pieties of cloistered prelates, theologians, purveyors of empty rituals, thesis-writers, makers of religious regulations. If you’ve done no good for anyone in your life, then to Hell with you! Simple as that.
--The Celestial Narrator in Wilton Barnhardt's Gospel

All the Not So Classic Books That I Have Read, Part One

Again a not so complete list.

1. Emma Who Saved My Life (1989) -- Wilton Barnhardt.

A novel about New York City in the 1970s and '80s as seen through the eyes of a naive young man.

2. Gospel (1993) -- Wilton Barnhardt.

A pair of scholars wander the globe in pursuit of a possible new version of the Gospel. (Not to be confused with The Da Vinci Code.)

3. Show World: A Novel (1999) -- Wilton Barnhardt.

A young woman fights disillusionment in a variety of areas: family life, politics, business, etc.

4. Inside, Outside (1985) -- Herman Wouk.

An old Jewish man looks back upon his life and notes the many conflicts between his Jewish background and his life in the secular world -- including his love for a Gentile showgirl.

5. The Winds of War (1971) -- Herman Wouk.

The novel that inspired the TV mini-series of the same name.

6. War and Remembrance (1978) -- Herman Wouk.

Ditto.

7. Marjorie Morningstar (1955) -- Herman Wouk.

A young Jewish woman learns about life and love while in pursuit of an acting career.

8. The Egyptian (1945) -- Mika Waltari.

An Egyptian doctor becomes a royal insider during the reign of Akhenaten, Egypt's only monotheistic pharaoh.

9. The Adventurer (1948) -- Mika Waltari.

A Finnish bastard makes his way through Europe in the time of the Reformation.

10. The Wanderer (1949) -- Mika Waltari.

A sequel to The Adventurer.