finish (most of) my summer reading list

This book is absolutely, unconditionally stunning.

It is quite possibly the best book I have ever read, simultaneously horrifying and special. It is difficult to read, not because of the language or the plot but because it causes such conflicting emotions which you are forced to reconcile.

Fatelessness follows a Hungarian boy as he is sent to Auschwitz and other concentration camps, where he is “fated” to survive stoically, step by step. Definitely deserving of the Nobel Prize. ()

On to Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, all in all quite a different read—

I just finished my first book from the summer reading list, The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk. It’s a sort of intellectual foray into identity—whether two people who look essentially the same can actually become one another given a lot of time and effort. Overall, the final chapter made the book worth reading, but it was a little slow at times. The whole feel of the book was a little magical, and anyone with an interest in Ottoman culture should give it a look. ()

On to Fatelessness...!

• Sons of the Conquerors by Hugh Pope (nonfiction)
• Quarantine by Juan Goytisolo
• State of Siege by Juan Goytisolo
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• White Castle by Orhan Pamuk
• Südtirol und die Südtiroler seit 1918 by (various) (nonfiction)
• Othello by William Shakespeare
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare (again, but for REAL this time!)
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
• Palestine by Joe Sacco (nonfiction)
• The Stranger by Albert Camus
• Khrushchev: The Man and His Era by William Taubman (nonfiction)
• Fateless by Imre Kertész
• Papiertiger by Radek Knapp