The
Happiness Myth, by Jennifer Michael
Hecht. Non-fiction. A philosopher/historian deconstructs happiness and notices
the glaring lack of eternal truths and preponderance of fad ideas. This woman
really does think outside the box. Fascinating, and maybe in some ways
life-changing.
Nothing great in
fiction lately – every suspense-ish book I pick up for light reading is either
a riff on the Da Vinci Code (secret sects, ancient mysteries, weird creeps
lurking in medieval church basements) or involves a secret cabal of right-wing
radicals inside the US govt. who want to destroy the Muslim world. These are
the “bad guys”, but the author clearly sympathizes. Yuck. (I’m not kidding –
two books in a row like this, include the most recent from Nelson DeMille, who
I thought more of than this).
However, I will
reiterate something I put up here about a year ago – best fiction I’ve read in
the last 5 years: The Time-Traveler’s
Wife. More an epic romance than science-fiction, it nonetheless
offers a different perspective on the central theme of all time-travel books:
predestination vs. free will. The twist: the protagonist doesn’t build a time
machine; instead, time travel happens to him suddenly, randomly, against his
will.
Thanks for all the
recommendations, folks. I’m looking forward to checking out a few of
them.
Warren