albert camus – Cannonball Read 17

I Only Understood a Third of this Book but I Still Liked It

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus

January 11, 2025 by esmemoria 2 Comments

Everything I’ve read by Albert Camus I have loved, and it is the same for The Myth of Sisyphus, only a portion of which I probably understood. From the back of the book: “[T]he essay presents a meditation on suicide–the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning.” As I understand it, in this book/essay, Camus uses the term “absurd” to mean the meaninglessness of the universe. It is through the acknowledgement of this absurdity that the limits of […]

I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe

The Stranger by Albert Camus

October 30, 2022 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

“I felt the urge to reassure him that I was like everybody else, just like everybody else.” ― Albert Camus, The Stranger I don’t remember why I had this on my TBR list. Perhaps it is because it is consistently listed as one of the great literary works of the 20th century and I thought it was time to see what all of the fuss is about. We are introduced to Meursault as he travels from his home in Algiers to bury his mother, who […]

August 2022 Leftovers

Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy

Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner

The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Man Who Liked to Look at Himself by K.C. Constantine

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris

Inside the Empire: The True Power Behind the New York Yankees by Bob Klapisch and Pete Solotaroff

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child

Finley Ball: How Two Outsiders Turned the Oakland As into a Dynasty and Changed Baseball Forever by Nancy Finley

Sea Change by Robert B. Parker

The Hunting Wives by May Cobb

The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay

Ms. Tree, Volume 1 by Max Alan Collins

September 3, 2022 by Jake Leave a Comment

Some extra books I read in August. What a miserably hot month… Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood**** Less a conventional biopic on The Mick and more a look at his life vis-a-vis his legend and the backdrop of postwar America. Not as thorough as I would’ve liked but still riveting given how Jane Leavy presents her subject. Greenwich Park*** Again glad I slept on my review. I really liked how this started but after a while, it morphed into […]

The Plague – Albert Camus (1947)

The Plague by Albert Camus

December 13, 2021 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I can’t imagine that anyone who read this novel before 2020 was very much surprised at what came next. This is a novel about plague reaching an Alergian port city, carried by the fleas that inhabit rats. Dead rats start showing up in tremendous numbers around the city, and even though the evidence is clear, the city is small to move on precautions that will save lives. Our narrator is watching this occur and this novel is presented almost as commentary and reportage on the […]

This White Whale Almost Did Me In

The Plague by Albert Camus

October 15, 2021 by esmemoria Leave a Comment

CBR Bingo – White Whale The truth is that nothing is less sensational than pestilence. – The Plague My reading froze up completely as I tried to read Camus’ The Plague. I think I’ve been trying to get through this book for a month. It’s not because it isn’t good (it’s really good) or too slow (a bit slow in places, but so worth it) or triggering me (nice time to read about a plague). It’s….I don’t know why. For weeks I just stopped reading […]

Embrace the Absurd!

The Stranger by Albert Camus

August 18, 2021 by Mobius_Walker 2 Comments

BINGO – People Meursault learns that his mother has just died. This news has no discernible effect on him other than he requests off from work to attend her funeral and burial. He displays no typically displays of grief and returns promptly to his life; hardly anything has changed. He starts dating an old acquaintance; he helps his friend with some relationship problems; he goes on vacation. Then, Meursault murders a man. All of the recent events and Meursault’s character are discussed and argued over […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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