The Stranger

I recently finished reading The Stranger by Albert Camus, an Algerian existentialist author very prominent in the 50's and recipient of the Nobel Prize of Literature. The book takes place likely in Algeria or a similar place, and the main character lives a city life before hearing of his mother's death and spending time on the beach. The book opens with the very chilling line "Mother died today, or maybe yesterday", this indifference to his mothers death, and later his own death, is a very prominent theme throughout the novel. The speaker seems very distanced from the reader, as if he is almost bored with telling the story. The existentialist nature of the novel is likely a response to organized religion and blind faith. Camus is writing to people of the same mind set and holds nothing back when the main character mocks a priest for trying to convert him during his last couple of days alive. I think the purpose behind this text was, and many of the peculiarities surrounding the story, is to question everything you know. Camus never lets faith become a substitute for reasoning, even though this reasoning stripped his character of essentially all emotions. This attitude is very evident in the tone of novel, the opening line exemplifies this. Along with an existentialist indifference, you can feel Camus' intellect packing a punch behind every word. This novel is truly amazing and i would award it 5/5 masked vigilantes.

The Last Boys Picked

I just finished reading a book entitled The Last Boys Picked, a text analyzing many different problems with being a non-athletic male in America. The authors Edgette and Rupp are both female and have a PsyD and MA, respectively. The primary author Edgette has a young (male) child who is quite inactive, and he is the inspiration behind this book; she writes often in regard to him. Contrary to my initial belief, boys like this are not criticized in book, but rather society is for not recognizing anything that isn't excessively masculine. The authors provide solutions for the problems inherent with these kind of kids, and the authors often use medical and scientific evidence to support these solutions.This book is very clearly written for an older audience, this is evident through very professional and often medical diction, advanced concepts, and the occasionally the authors assuming everyone reading this is a parent. The authors utilize a very unique tone, actually quite similar to the Stephen Hawking book i wrote about earlier, very professional and often medical tone is apparent, however, this is never more than a page turn away from a sarcastic remark. The authors seem to use this contrast to further contrast the double standard imposed on young men, and to mock the non-sensibilities that frequently occur when children are expected to be men.

All in all, I would recommend this book to another person, although probably not another teenage. This book is extremely helpful, but defiantly for the parents of boys like the ones in the book. If I had to rate this book, I would rate it a 4 out of 5 highly collectible  Pokemon cards.

A Brief Summary of "A Brief History of Time"

Reently I read "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking, and actually found it quite enjoyable! I thought he did a great job of making something as complicated as theoretical physics easy to understand, and made it interesting to read. Hawking writes with a style that is very unique, he casually puts sarcasm throughout the book while maintaining a professional, yet easy to read, style of writing. The purpose of Hawking writing this book was for the common man to read (although to be fair, if you are reading up on theoretical physics you probably aren't the 'common man'), and to share his vast knowledge of the universe in a way you don't need a PhD to understand. Although this isn't the first comprehensive physics book, it is one of the easiest to understand, which explains its massive success. How Hawking appeals to his audience is remarkable, and I think he does that through his tone. Hawking throws hundreds of years of physics at you, but still manages to make you feel like so little is known, and shows you how insignificant everything really is. For example "One possible answer is to say that God chose the initial configuration for reasons we cannot hope to understand" (Hawking 127), and being facetious by using words like "ain't" when talking about extremely complex theories.

In "A Brief History of Time" Hawking covers topics ranging from string physics to black holes to time travel and the origin of everything.  I would recommend reading this book if you are interested in physics, and on a scacle of A-F I would give this book an A. Read it!