Can't Wait Wednesday No. 1: The Afterlives, by Thomas Pierce

This is my first "Can't Wait Wednesday" post!

   

This is a weekly event hosted by

Tressa @ Wishful Endings, and inspired by "Waiting On Wednesday", which used to be hosted by

 Jill @ Breaking the Spine.

For more information, please click HERE.

This new meme also showcases future releases  highly anticipated by book bloggers. 
There are many genres featured, so I will concentrate on literary fiction and other contemporary fiction.

My choice for this week is a very intriguing mix of elements!

 The Afterlives: A Novel

Thomas Pierce

Hardcover,  384 pages

Riverhead Books

January 9, 2018   

Contemporary Fiction, Literary Fiction,

Metaphysical Fiction, Romance

About the Book

A love story that asks: what happens after we die? The debut novel from National Book Award 5 Under 35 Winner and author of the “ridiculously good” (New York Times) collection Hall of Small Mammals.

Jim Byrd died. Technically. For a few minutes. The diagnosis: heart attack at age thirty. Revived with no memory of any tunnels, lights, or angels, Jim wonders what—if anything—awaits us on the other side.

Then a ghost shows up. Maybe. Jim and his new wife, Annie, find themselves tangling with holograms, psychics, messages from the beyond, and a machine that connects the living and the dead. As Jim and Annie journey through history and fumble through faith, they confront the specter of loss that looms for anyone who dares to fall in love. Funny, fiercely original, and gracefully moving, The Afterlives will haunt you. In a good way.

Why I can't wait for this book!

This novel deals with topics that are really fascinating to me! I've always been interested in NDEs (near-death experiences), as well as the possibility of communication with the beyond, and other metaphysical topics. Plus, it looks like there's some romance involved, as well!

 

 About the Author

Thomas Pierce was born and raised in South Carolina. He is the author of the forthcoming novel, The Afterlives, and the acclaimed story collection, Hall of Small Mammals. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Oxford American, and elsewhere. A recipient of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award, he is a graduate of the University of Virginia creative writing program and lives in Virginia with his wife and daughters.

Website/Goodreads/Twitter

What do you think of my choice?

Please leave a comment below!

Book Blogger Hop No. 3: Books I Have Re-read

Welcome to the Book Blogger Hop,

hosted by Billy @

Ramblings of a Coffee-Addicted Writer!

For more information, and 

to find out the topic of next week's question, click HERE.

This Week's Question

How many books have you re-read? If you have re-read books, please tell us the book titles and why you re-read them.

(Submitted  by Elizabeth  @ 

Silver's Reviews)

My Answer

There are several books I have re-read throughout the years. Although subsequent readings cannot compare with that first reading, I have still enjoyed each book -- or not -- just as much the second time around.

Since there are quite a few books I've re-read, I will just highlight a few. 

The first books that come to mind are those of The Twilight Saga, by Stephenie Meyer. As regular readers of my YA blog A Night's Dream of Books,  know, I LOVE this series!! I've re-read all four novels three times each, and the first novel four times -- one of them in Spanish, since I'm fluent in that language. 

I love the characters of these novels, especially Edward Cullen and Bella Swan! Although some people might dislike the books because they think the romance between Edward, a vampire, and Bella, a human, is just too 'weird' and 'out there', let me assure those of you who have not read these books that they're beautiful, romantic, and full of teen angst and great paranormal action! But there's more to them than this. They also have themes of loyalty, courage, and the determination to live a life of non-violence.

 
Another book I've re-read (twice, unbelievably enough) is Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. In my last Book Blogger Hop post, I expressed just how much I detest this novel, so I won't repeat myself here. Reading -- as well as re-reading it -- was not a pleasant experience by any means.

What a contrast is Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte!! This novel is my all-time favorite classic!! I've read it twice, as well, and gained some new insights the second time, too. I have admired Jane for many years, and only wish I could be half the person she is. Her strong determination to live her life on her own terms, according to her inner moral compass, and not the dictates of the society of her time, is truly an example. Furthermore, her romantic relationship with Edward Rochester is tumultuous and passionate, which makes for great drama!

I've also re-read Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. The first time I read it, I was a high school student, and found it just as boring as I found Jane Eyre exciting. Of course, these two writers -- Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen -- had very different personalities. I much prefer Bronte's novel because she created dynamic, passionate characters, as well as very dramatic scenarios. Austen's novel, in contrast, was of a more subtle type. This author was concerned with satirizing the accepted conventions of the society of her time, and in a slyly humorous way. There was no "sturm und drang" in this novel.  

During my second reading, I was better able to appreciate Austen's sly humor, as well as her astute characterizations. However, I will always prefer Jane Eyre!

Another book I've read twice is Magister Ludi, by Hermann Hesse. This novel is also known by the title The Glass Bead Game. What's fascinating about it is the intellectual nature of this fictitious game, although Hesse never does elaborate on just how it's played. Equally fascinating is Hesse's creation of an intellectual province, known as "Castalia". I would love to be able to live in such a province!

This is not a dramatic novel at all, and the action moves quite slowly. I liked it, though, because the main character, Joseph Knecht, goes through a very compelling series of changes, all of an intellectual as well as emotional nature, throughout the novel. At the end, he has become transformed into a person who is able to appreciate both the intellectual life, and the life of the senses. This was one of Hesse's major themes, too.

I think I'd like to go back for a third reading of this novel! I'm sure there are many more things about it that I will be able to appreciate.

Another novel I've read twice is Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. I was enjoying it the second time just as much as the first, until I found out what had really happened with one of the main characters. I don't know why, but I had not remembered this detail from my first reading, years ago. Instead, I had remembered what happened in the movie version. Interestingly, it seems that my mind had surreptitiously substituted the events of the movie version, precisely because the way the plot developed in the novel had disgusted me. The whole thing involved a murder, and how this murder was covered up. In the movie version, there was no murder.

This curious incident has made me realize just how complex the workings of the mind are. Our memories are not always reliable in recording exactly what took place in our past. We remember some things as we wish they had taken place, and not as they really did. Hmmmm.....

So these are some of the books I've re-read. There are several more, but, in the interests of not making this post overly long, I will stop here. Lol.

I'm very interested to know what books other hop participants have re-read, and why!

 
       

What are your thoughts on

this topic?

Please leave a comment!

If you're participating in this meme,

I'll go comment on your 

own BBH post.

If not, I will then comment on one 

of your blog posts!

Thanks for visiting!!! 

Book Review: Magister Ludi, by Hermann Hesse

Magister Ludi: The Glass Bead Game
Hermann Hesse
(Richard & Clara Winston, translators)
Mass Market Paperback, 520 pages
Bantam, October, 1970
(Originally published as Das Glasperlenspiel,
1943, by Fretz & Warmuth Verlag AG,
Zurich, Switzerland)
Classics, Literary Fiction,
Philosophy, Science Fantasy, Utopian Literature

AWARDS: Nobel Prize in Literature, 1946

My Review

 

The great, German-born writer, Hermann Hesse, had a very profound impact on me during my college years. I am now trying to re-read the books that so fascinated me back then, although I don't expect I'll ever really be able to plumb their depths.  Hesse was much influenced by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, so his novels are full of symbolism and the hidden workings of the human psyche.  They also portray the workings of the archetypes -- those universal denizens of Jung's collective unconscious, which is shared by the entire human race.  Adding to this is Hesse's luminous, lyrical prose, which extends itself into long, descriptive passages of great literary beauty.

In other words, this is not an easy read.  It is, however, a rewarding one, if one is willing to invest the time necessary to savor the book, since it obviously does not lend itself to fast reading.  This is by no means the type of book that one "can't put down".  In fact, one must indeed put it down, and often, so as to ponder the things Hesse is saying.  Then one is inevitably drawn back to it.  At least, this is what happened with me. 

I would call this a rather unique hybrid of novel and philosophical treatise.  In that respect, it reminds me of the classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig, a book that, among others, was very influential in the development of the American counter-culture several years ago, and which I also intend to re-read.   Another book that comes to mind is Sophie's World: A Novel About The History Of Philosophy, by Jostein Gaarder, which I have yet to read.

These are books that use the format of a novel to present philosophical ideas.  Therefore, the plot, if any, is driven by such ideas.  Obviously, this is not the typical novel that contains the basic elements of fiction writing as we have come to expect them.   There's no heart-pounding suspense, no fast action, little to no character conflict.  At the risk of sounding repetitious, I must again state that we are instead presented with a banquet of intellectual concepts to be pondered and enjoyed for the sheer enjoyment of doing so.   So this is literary pleasure of quite a different order. 

Through the fictional character named Joseph Knecht (whose last name in German means "servant"), Hesse presents the theme that dominates all of his books -- the intellectual life as contrasted with the active life.  Knecht undergoes an evolution in this novel, coming to the point of accepting that the intellectual life alone cannot satisfy completely, if entirely divorced from life in the sensory world.   In the process, the reader is given an intimate look into Knecht's -- and therefore, Hesse's -- inner world.  

The novel's predominant metaphor is the Glass Bead Game, invented by Hesse.  He never provides a clear picture of it, however, although he does say that, in its beginnings, the game was, indeed, played with glass beads.  Eventually, it evolved into a complex interrelationship of ideas, taken from certain fields of human knowledge, such as music, mathematics, languages, and science.   The purpose of each game is to find ways to link core concepts in these fields into one grand, symphonic whole.

There are at least two important sources of conflict in the novel, although said conflict is on a strictly intellectual level.  It's not of the action-oriented variety.  Instead, it's a clash of ideologies.  Knecht has two opponents here -- Plinio Designori, a guest student in the fictional province of Castalia, where the Glass Bead Game was developed, and Father Jacobus, a member of the Benedictine Order, whom Knecht meets when he is assigned to tutor monks in the basics of the Game.   Designori, who eventually returns to the outside world, represents the active life; he later becomes involved in politics.  Jacobus, on the other hand, represents the life of the spirit.  He is concerned about the fact that Castalia has no religion or belief in a Supreme Power.  Both of these men have a great influence on Knecht, who will eventually make the decision to fully integrate his intellectual life with that of the senses, of action.  This is despite the fact that he had been chosen to be the Magister Ludi -- the Master of the Glass Bead Game, at the age of 40.  As Magister Ludi, one of his duties includes leading the annual celebration of the game, an occasion of great ceremony in Castalia, attended by heads of state and other influential people in Hesse's futuristic world.

The novel also includes several poems "written" by Knecht in his student years, as well as three fictional lives he was required to complete as part of his studies.  These further demonstrate Hesse's power as a lyrical writer.  I only wish I knew German, so I could read this book in the original, thus getting the true "feel" of the work!

The perfect culmination to Hesse's literary work, this novel will repay the reader with some very interesting, profound concepts that will indelibly imprint themselves in his/her mind.  I would especially recommend it for those times when one does crave something to really engage the intellect.  Not that there's anything wrong with reading less challenging works, however.  It all depends on what the mind and the emotions are open to at any given point in time.  At least, this has been my experience, although I'm sure I'm not unique in this respect.

About The Author

(From Goodreads)

Hermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best known works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game (also known as Magister Ludi) which explore an individual's search for spirituality outside society.

In his time, Hesse was a popular and influential author in the German-speaking world; worldwide fame only came later. Hesse's first great novel, Peter Camenzind, was received enthusiastically by young Germans desiring a different and more "natural" way of life at the time of great economic and technological progress in the country.

Throughout Germany, many schools are named after him. In 1964, the Calwer Hermann-Hesse-Preis was founded, which is awarded every two years, alternately to a German-language literary journal or to the translator of Hesse's work to a foreign language. There is also a Hermann Hesse prize associated with the city of Karlsruhe,Germany.

Online Links

Hermann Hesse: Wikipedia

The Glass Bead Game: Wikipedia

Webmagister Ludi and The 

Glass Bead Game

The Glass Bead Game: Cosmic

Play in a Symbolic Universe

Tuesday Intros No. 11: The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, by Katarina Bivald

Welcome to First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday Intros,

hosted by Diane @

Bibliophile By The Sea!!

Every Tuesday, each participant
shares the first paragraph 

(sometimes two) from a book
they're reading,

or thinking about reading.

The book I've picked this week is...

 The Readers of Broken Wheel
Recommend  
Katarina Bivald
Translated from Swedish by Alice Menzies 
Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Sourcebooks Landmark
January 19, 2013
Bibliophilia, Contemporary Fiction,
Literary Fiction, Women's Fiction

About the Book
  
Once you let a book into your life, the most unexpected things can happen...

Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her pen pal, Amy. When she arrives, however, she finds that Amy's funeral has just ended. Luckily, the townspeople are happy to look after their bewildered tourist—even if they don't understand her peculiar need for books. Marooned in a farm town that's almost beyond repair, Sara starts a bookstore in honor of her friend's memory.

All she wants is to share the books she loves with the citizens of Broken Wheel and to convince them that reading is one of the great joys of life. But she makes some unconventional choices that could force a lot of secrets into the open and change things for everyone in town. Reminiscent of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, this is a warm, witty book about friendship, stories, and love.



Books 1 - Life 0

The strange woman standing on Hope's main street was so ordinary it was almost scandalous. A thin, plain figured dressed in an autumn coat much too gray and warm for the time of year, a backpack lying on the ground by her feet, an enormous suitcase resting against one of her legs. Those who happened to witness her arrival couldn't help feeling it was inconsiderate for someone to care so little about their appearance. It seemed as though this woman was not the slightest bit interested in making a good impression them. 

Her hair was a nondescript shade of brown, held back with a carelessly placed hair clip that didn't stop it from flowing down over her shoulders in a tangle of curls. Where her face should have been, there was a copy of Louisa May Alcott's An Old-Fashioned Girl.  

I was at good ol' Barnes & Noble this past weekend, and this book immediately caught my eye. I love that cover! I glanced through it briefly, but didn't buy it. I was trying to be "good", since I had just spent my money on two books.....However, the memory of this novel has been torturing me since then, so I've looked it up on Amazon, and will order it as soon as my next paycheck arrives!
(I really don't need to ask if I should keep reading it,  because I definitely will!)

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