peter karam

Pete's Brief

and Blunt on Books

Peter Karam’s pointed opinions on books he’s read.

01. Histories

Old stuff that we're doomed to repeat.

...apparently

BC/BCE

Before Christ / Before the Common Era

Writings or events more than 2,000 years old.

Homer

(not Simpson)

Iliad

   Agamemnon needs a good hobby. Like besides trying to sack Troy. (And some accounts even say that Helen was in Egypt the whole time. So...). (haven't finished it)

Odyssey

​   After the Trojan War Odysseus has some misadventures getting home, including man-eating giants, the sorceress Circe, a cyclops, a kraken, shipwrecks, husbanding children to the nymph Calypso, and meeting the god Athena.

William Shakespeare

Julius Caesar

   Beware the Ides of March is all I can say. When your friends say they have your back… …but you’re a general-turned-politician who overthrew a democratic government and installed yourself as dictator-for-life.

AD / CE

Anno Domini / Common Era

No, AD isn't literally short for "After Death".

1400s

...

The Chinese are circumnavigating the globe with trained sea-otters and pet giraffes, and the English are… infighting and inbreeding.

Gavin Menzies

The oldest living civilization flexes its might and knowledge.

1421: The Year China Discovered America

   An astounding body of research is presented, supporting an historic circumnavigational voyage by an epic fleet of ships from an ancient culture far more advanced than any other on earth at that time. (Who those small-time Europeans got their maps from in order to “discover” the Western Hemisphere. See below.)

​

1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance

   For those who din’t realize that the Italian Renaissance only happened because of, and directly following, the ancient Chinese culture sharing their advanced technologies and knowledge with Mediterranean peoples. 

(Currently still reading)

William Shakespeare

The War of the Roses

   Generations of distant relatives marrying or murdering each other, fighting for their descendants to sit on the throne of England. (Spoiler alert: their descendants in fact still sit on the throne. So.. good job I guess? That murder-or-marry-your-cousin thing really works on you.)

King Richard II
King Henry IV, Part One
King Henry IV, Part Two
King Henry V
King Henry VI, Part One
King Henry VI, Part Two
King Henry VI, Part Three
King Richard III

1500s

...

That magical “new” Western Hemisphere the Europeans discovered already has millions of different people in it!?! Wha..?! Who knew?! Besides the Vikings. and the Chinese. and the Polynesians. and the approximately 60 million Indigenous Peoples living on these “Americas”. Besides all of those people, who knew?

Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca

Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca’s Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America

   An amazing and wholly unique, true firsthand look into the various Indigenous Peoples and Cultures along the southern gulf coast of North America, circa 1527-1537. His crew dies.. he gets enslaved.. he almost meets the devil..

1700s

...

...

Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities

   It was the worst of times. The horrors of the grotesque late-1700s French revolutionary war. Should be required-reading for all wealth-barons and oligarchs.

1800s

...

...

Scott O’Dell

Island of the Blue Dolphins

   Ahh, to have an island to ones self, sans greed, religious colonialism, and disease.

David Herbert Donald

Lincoln

   A good one all about ol’ Abe.

1900s

...

...

Ewen Montagu

The Man Who Never Was

   WWII’s Operation Mincemeat aka something cool to do with a dead body.

John Muir

Savourer and saver of nature.

A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf
   Almost goes blind in a milling accident.
 

My First Summer in the Sierra
   Goat-herding around Yosemite.
 

Strickeen
   Adventures with a dog on a glacier.
 

The Story of My Boyhood and Youth
   In Dunbar, Scotland. 
 

Travels in Alaska
   Glaciers and stuff.

02. Holy & Religious Works

(and historical accounts) 

...

Hindu Texts

Bhagavad-Gita 

   The Song of God. Beatific enlightenment from Sri Krishna. And pre-civil-war council to Arjuna.

Taoist Texts

Tao Te Ching

   The Way of Life, according to Lao Tzu aka Laozi. Beatific enlightenment.

Confucian Texts

The Sayings of Confucius

   The way, supporting a hierarchal caste society.

Buddhist Texts

In the Buddha’s Words

   An Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon. Beatific enlightenment from the Tipitaka. Don’t be so attached to this physical world and the stuff in it, as all that is material is in fact immaterial.

Olympic Texts

Hesiod

Theogony

   All the Gods and how they are related. And some battles with Titans. Etc.

Hymns

   Odes to each of the Gods.

Works and Days

   How to live life. Get a boat. Garden on the right days.

Abrahamic Texts

...

   Beatific enlightenment and tales of morality (peppered into -no disrespect- justifications for, and accounts of, institutional misogyny, rape, murder, enslavement, and genocide)

The Tanakh

Avrahamic Religions, Part One

   The origin-stories and histories of the ancestors and descendants of Avraham and his son Yîshaq (& other son Yîsmael). Including the books of Moshe and tales of the prophet Eliyahu.

The Bible

Abrahamic Religions, Parts One & Two

   The origin-stories and histories of the ancestors and descendants of Abraham, including his sons Isaac & Ishmael. The books of Mosses and tales of the prophet Elijah.

   Roman popes and emperors realized it’d be easier to control everyone if they all shared the same religious beliefs, texts, & holidays, so they combined the ancient Jewish texts (in the vein of “eye for an eye” ‘justice’) with texts accounting of a peacenik named Yeshua ben Yosef who started a movement based on love and forgiveness (i.e. “turn the other cheek”, which is basically the opposite of “eye for an eye”, treat everyone with kindness.. etc.).

   (Spoiler: the church leaders didn’t like the rabble-rousing peacenik who was feeding poor people, and so they charged him with heresy and had him crucified.)

The Qur’an

Ibrahimic Religions, Parts One, Two, & Three

   The origin-stories and histories of the ancestors and descendants of Ibrahim and his son Ismail (& other son Ishaq). The books of Musa and tales of the prophet Ēlēyā.

   Also the accounts of the son of Marium, Isa (who gets crucified).

   And of course the teachings of the final prophet Muhammad.

The Sinai And Comparative New Testament

(1881)

   A very interesting side-by-side comparison of the Sinai, Vatican, Alexandrian, & English (from the Greek) Bibles’ New Testaments.

The Apocryphal Gospels

Accounts not included by the Roman popes & emperors.

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas

   Tales of big baby Jesus, and I ain’t talkin’ about ODB.
 

Justin’s Account of Baruch’s Appearance to Jesus  

   12-year-old Yeshua.
 

Gospel of Thomas

   The sayings of Jesus, the Christ.
 

The Gospel of Judas

   Matthew, Mark, Luke, & Judas.

The [existing fragments of the] Gospels of Eve, Philip, Apelles, Matthias, Jesus’ Wife, the Egyptians, and the Greater Questions of Mary (in which Jesus provides an example of a ‘side-piece’)

   All just small excerpts of the original texts.

The Jewish Anti-Gospel

   Jesus was “hated by God, a sorcerous scoundrel.”

Huston Smith

Islam

   A great introduction to the religion.

Ellen G. White

The Great Controversy

   Very interesting accounting of some of the major early rebel protestant leaders and events (I.e. Martin Luther, etc). Followed by Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) revelations and teachings of their prophet Ellen White.

   The SDA movement came out of a Millerite group in the 1840s that calculated and predicted that the return of the Christ would be by the spring of 1844*. But the blessed redeemer did not show up in the form or manner with which was expected, which was a Great Disappointment.

​

I've also read other books by E.G.White..

Gloria Faizi

The Baha’i Faith

   A concise and informative introduction to the religion. *In May of 1844 the promised redeemer arose in Persia, the Báb, and he shared his divine knowledge with Bahá’u’lláh and others. But as with all great incarnations of God, messages of peace and unification led to - spoiler - charges of heresy and his execution.

Other Enlightenments

and stuff

...

Aldus Huxley

The Doors of Perception

   The author does some controlled hallucinogenics in a somewhat clinical setting and manner, and experiences revelations.

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Silmarillion

   J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictionalized retelling of Norto-European origin-stories and ancient tales. Basically the bible of The Hobbit & LOTR world.

03. Other Non-Fiction

andor whatnot

...

Dave Barry

Dave Barry Talks Back

   Duh - it’s hilarious of course. Every article I ever read of his in newspapers was hilarious too.

Bill Bryson

Learn about stuff and laugh.

A Walk in the Woods
   Walk (hike, adventure on) the Appalachian Trail. And laugh.
 

Notes from a Small Island
   Wander (adventure) around England. And laugh.
 

The Mother Tongue
   Entertaining education on Western European language families and the resultant menagerie that is English. So many different versions of different languages make up modern English, the language is seemingly random and lawless, and at the same time highly versatile and adaptable.
 

Shakespeare: The World as Stage
   Bill on Bill: We don’t know Jack about Will. And that’s funny.
 

A Short History of Nearly Everything
   Bill on Everything. This is deep, but not without humor. It’s like a textbook written by.. well, Bill Bryson. (Currently still reading).

Betty Edwards

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

  This book helps make more connections across your brain. It feels good.

Maive Higgins

Maive in America

   Hilarious personal anecdotes of the titular heroine. Coincidentally, Titular Heroine is the new name of my rock band. 

Jane Nelson

Positive Discipline Pioneer

   If you have kids, no pressure, but their positive interaction with the world is largely dependent upon you. (You know - trying to raise one that won't go on a shooting spree). And raising a good person is one of the most important things anyone could ever do. And the good doctor knows this.

Positive Discipline
   Kids are just little people. Treat them as you would like to be treated. Explain rather than shame. Help them have an informed and included upbringing.
 

Positive Discipline for Preschoolers
   This helped remind me how to be a better parent of a terrorizing tot:)
 

Positive Discipline for Teenagers
   And once they become teens you’re gonna want any help you can get!

Jenara Nerenberg

Divergent Mind

   May be written with women in mind, but after 45 years of wondering why I was different, it showed me why I am who I am, and that it is all (mostly) okay.

Gabriel Wyner

Fluent Forever

   Learning new languages. (Currently reading).

04. Anglo-American

& English Classics

(And Other Modern Tales) 

...

Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe and Everything

   If only it were this easy

to get off of this doomed orb...

Lynne Reid Banks

The [Iroquois] in the Cupboard
The Return of the [Iroquois]
The Secret of the [Iroquois]

   Overlooking the obvious fact that they should’ve been titled “The Iroquois* in the Cupboard”, etc, as the titular hero was indigenous to the North American continent and not the Indian subcontinent, these are fun and adventurous stories. Makes a kid feel like their toys really could be as real as they imagine them to be. *Haudenosaunee (Kanien’kehà:ka [Mohawk], On^yote?a.ká. [Oneida], Onoñda’gegá” [Onondaga], Gayogohó:nq’ [Cayuga], Onödowá’ga [Seneca], and Skarù:rę? [Tuscarora]).

Terry Brooks

The Sword of Shannara

   A very fun middle-earth -er- Four Lands adventure. I mean duh - Terry Brooks!

I will someday read more of this series. Would have read more at the time but then my sister gave me Rice's Interview.. and I morphed from elf to vampire. These things happen.

Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden

   I want a secret garden to hide from the world and play in.

Lewis Carroll

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

   Fanciful adventure for all ages.

Beverly Cleary

All fun reads!

Henry Huggins
Henry and Beezus
Henry and Ribsy
Beezus and Ramona
Ribsy
Ramona the Pest
 

The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Runaway Ralph
Ralph S. Mouse

  An obvious cousin of Stuart Little :)

Ernest Cline

Ready Player One

   Currently reading under recommendation of my young adult child. Fun 90s nostalgia future adventure.

Joseph Conrad

aka Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski

Lord Jim
   Only got about half way through this wordy tome.
 

The Secret Agent
   Another wordy contribution to literature, but nonetheless a refreshingly different take on the espionage genre.

Roald Dahl

James and the Giant Peach
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

   Awesome and surreal children’s adventures.

Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet
The Sign of Four
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

   The mysterious recountings of the esteemed Dr. Watson.

Ian Fleming

the spy, not the actor.

Thrilling Cities
   Not a Bond book, just a nice travelogue.
 

Casino Royal
   Better ending than the 2006 film, but no film has ever been as good as its book.
 

Live and Let Die
Moonraker
Diamonds Are Forever
From Russia, With Love
Dr. No
Goldfinger
Thunderball
The Spy Who Loved Me
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
You Only Live Twice
The Man with the Golden Gun

Kenneth Grahame

The Wind in the Willows

   That Mr. Toad is mad-crazy.

Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea

   A retelling of an old Cuban fishermen’s tale.

William Henry Hudson

Green Mansions

   Awesome epic adventures of a girl in the Amazon jungle. Read the 1st half to my daughter but then the kiddo wanted to get into Redwall, and there's so many of those we forgot to come back to this.

John Irving

A Prayer for Owen Meany

   Got about 3/4 of the way through and stopped caring about Owen and I wanna say.. New Jersey or somewhere.. ?

Brian Jacques

Lord Brocktree
Martin the Warrior
Mossflower
The Legend of Luke
Outcast of Redwall
Mariel of Redwall
The Bellmaker
Salamandastron
Redwall

   A long time ago — in like,  medieval times I guess — heavily armed and anthropomorphized rodents battled..   sometimes even to the death! Especially if it's a character you've grown particularly fond of, then yeah, they are definitely gonna die. Don't get too attached to many foxes is all I'm sayin’..

Jack Kerouac

the beat poet

On The Road
   Let’s GO! Get out there and live life! Live it all and do it all and feel it all and don’t ever stop livin’ you crazysonsabiches..
 

The Dharma Bums
   Still On The Road, livin’!
 

Big Sur
   Life is not always fun when you’re On The Road - livin’ it up. It can be depressing too.

Madeleine L’Engle

A Wrinkle in Time
A Wind in the Door
A Swiftly Tilting Planet

   I remember really enjoying these as a young sci-fi adventurer.

C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia

   I’m certain it’s real if I could only find the right wardrobe.
 

The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy 
Prince Caspian
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
 

The Magician’s Nephew

   Technically chronologically first, but since Lion was written first, Lion possesses the magical discovery of the Narnia universe, thus the argument to read Lion first.)
 

The Last Battle

Astrid Lindgren

Pippi Longstocking

   You go Pippi, you can do anything.

Jack London

wolves & sleddogs in Alaska

White Fang
   Titular hero has heroic parents and an epic life. A brutal brutal epic life. There will be blood. 
 

The Call of the Wild
   Poor Buck is dognapped and has to learn the “law of club and fang” and find the wild beast inside himself in order to survive.

Mary Norton

The Borrowers

    No not the Littles. The Littles are to the Borrowers what the Go-Bots are to Transformers. Not to disparage; I certainly had some Go-Bots that I played with all the time growing up.

Wilson Rawls

Where the Red Fern Grows

   Fall in love with puppies that grow into dogs that are a part of your family. Then -spoiler- all dogs go to heaven - and there’s angels there. And God killed your dog because He wanted you to stop spending so much time outside in the woods with your dogs and your grandpa, and move to the city. Wait — what?!

   Some deal with childhood trauma by writing about it.

   (And it was required-reading for school.)

Anne Rice

met her once; she was cool; dressed in all black middle eastern garb and gold jewelry

Interview With A Vampire
   A consuming read. Makes you want to be a vampire and live forever.
 

The Vampire Lestat
   Vampires in NOLA.
 

The Queen of the Damned
   Vampires in ancient Egypt. I was vamped-out and moved on to the next subject about 3/4th of the way through though. No shade to Aaliyah. We love Aaliyah.

William Shakespeare

Cymbeline (currently reading)
As You Like It :D 
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Measure for Measure
The Comedy of Errors
The Two Gentlemen of Verona :D
The Winter’s Tale
Much Ado About Nothing :D
The Tempest
Romeo and Juliet —Love hurts.
The Sonnets —Love poems for girls and boys.

   Some of these are some of my all time favorite hilarious (:D) tales.

John Steinbeck

always a fun read

The Pearl
   A depressingly real-feeling tale of greed.
 

Of Mice and Men
   A depressingly real-feeling tale of the Great Depression. (Spoiler: Don’t fall in love with the mice. Or the men.)
 

The Grapes of Wrath
   More fun tales from the Great Depression.

J.R.R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel

The Silmarillion
   The origin and early ages of Middle Earth. Heavy heavy with details. Stories within stories.
 

The Hobbit
   The precious is found. Fun, consuming adventures.
 

The Lord of the Rings
   It takes the precious to the mountain.

Mark Twain

his politics and racism aside..

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
   Here, hold my paint brush a sec..
 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
   Let’s go outside and have an adventure! And.. his name is Jim. Just. Jim.
 

The Prince and the Pauper

Voltaire

Candide (or Optimism)

   François-Marie Arouet doesn’t pull any punches in these ludicrously dark tales of “optimism”.

E.B. White

Elwyn Brooks

Stuart Little
   Awesome adventures of a debonaire vector. Bring your lifejacket.
 

Charlotte’s Web
   Spiders are cool, and pigs are people too.

(I worked with a Charlotte Webb once, no joke).

The Trumpet of the Swan
   Epic, fun adventures of an other-abled trumpeter swan.

05. Kids Classics

that I had and loved as a little kid

---

E.E. Cummings

Fairy Tales

   Pictures by John Eaton. Everything from the old man who said “why” to the little girl named “I”.

Jean De Brunhoff

The Babar Series

   Fun story about elephants.. or discussion about colonialism..

P.D. Eastman

Are You My Mother?

   Hint for baby bird: the backhoe is not your mother.

Susan Jeffers

Three Jovial Huntsmen

   A Mother Goose rhyme, amazingly and hilariously illustrated by Jeffers.

Rudyard Kipling

Aside from his paternalistic racism...

Just So Stories

   These are fun poetic origin-stories of animals and alphabets, and more fun to read out-loud. Like old-timey Dr. Seuss. But as I read to my kid, “the Ethiopian was really a Man, and so his name was Sam.”

The Jungle Book

   Many awesome adventures of different animals (like Rikki-Tikki-Tavi!) and a preteen (Mowgli).

Munro Leaf

The Story of Ferdinand

   I’ve always related to Ferdinand.

Theo LeSeig

In A People House

   Spoiler - there’s people in there!

Arnold Lobel

The Frog and Toad Series

    Gotta love Frog & Toad.

Mercer Mayer

Critters & Nightmares

There’s a Nightmare in My Closet  

   Spoiler - the Nightmare is actually pretty sweet.

The Little Critter Series

   That Little Critter went through everything.

Margret & Hans Ray

The Curious George Series

   Funny little monkey - I mean chimp, or macaque, or whathaveyou.

Maurice Sendak

Naked & Wild..

Where the Wild Things Are

    I always wanted a forest to grow in my room.

​In the Night Kitchen
   I thought this was cool as a kid, but my kid thought it was weird, and a bit too child-endanger-y.

Shel Silverstein

The Giving Tree

    What a good parent is - a giving tree.

William Steig

Amos & Boris

   Love these two.

Rex & Laurence Whistler

Aha

    You may have to turn this one over in your brain a couple of times before you know which way is up.

Margery Williams

The Velveteen Rabbit

    ..with illustrations by William Nicholson.