{"id":6292,"date":"2011-09-01T23:10:15","date_gmt":"2011-09-02T03:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=6292"},"modified":"2016-07-08T15:11:04","modified_gmt":"2016-07-08T19:11:04","slug":"september-recommendations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2011\/09\/01\/september-recommendations\/","title":{"rendered":"September Recommendations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I get nostalgic in September, so I decided to pick five books that dwell in memory and its effects on the present. I love how the past pervades these books, haunting the characters.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong>The Remains of the Day<\/strong><\/em>, by Kazuo Ishiguro (<a title=\"Mookse Review of The Remains of the Day\" href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2008\/07\/10\/kazuo-ishiguros-the-remains-of-the-day\/\">original review July 10, 2008<\/a>). Here we have Stevens, the quintessential English butler, only the days of the manor house have past. Once a lively household with a large staff appropriate for the important meetings that\u00a0would take place there, the home is now owned by an American who himself seems to have purchased the home as a whim, a relic of the past. Approaching the autumn of his life, Stevens believes there is a chance to bring back the glory days of his household, and he decides to visit his friend Miss Kenton, the former housekeeper, whom he also &#8212; though he wouldn&#8217;t admit it then and barely now &#8212; loved.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong>An American Childhood<\/strong><\/em>, by Annie Dillard (<a title=\"Mookse Review of An American Childhood\" href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2008\/09\/21\/annie-dillards-an-american-childhood\/\">original review September 21, 2008<\/a>).\u00a0This is a\u00a0remarkable book about Dillard&#8217;s childhood where she teaches us to &#8220;see.&#8221; Dillard doesn&#8217;t curb her romantic tendencies as she tries to prove Thoreau wrong when he said he had never met a man who was fully awake.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>So Long, See You Tomorrow<\/em><\/strong>, by William Maxwell (<a title=\"Mookse Review of So Long, See You Tomorrow\" href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2009\/07\/20\/william-maxwells-so-long-see-you-tomorrow\/\">original review July 20, 2009<\/a>). Each of these five books is in contention as my favorite book, but <em>So Long, See You Tomorrow<\/em> is at the top. I&#8217;ve recommended this book to many people since I finished it, and when I ask them how they liked it they get a reverent look at slowly say: &#8220;That was a great book.&#8221; It is. No summary necessary here &#8212; just read it.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong>The Invention of Morel<\/strong><\/em>, by Adolfo Bioy Casares (<a title=\"Mookse Review of The Invention of Morel\" href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2009\/09\/07\/adolfo-bioy-casares-the-invention-of-morel\/\">original review September 7, 2009<\/a>). A strange work of fantasy that is profoundly intimate and lonely. A man is stranded on\u00a0a strange island, but soon falls in love with a woman who, it appears, ignores his existence.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong>The Emigrants<\/strong><\/em>, by W.G. Sebald (<a title=\"Mookse Review of The Emigrants\" href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2009\/09\/27\/w-g-sebald-the-emigrants\/\">original review September 27, 2009<\/a>). I have now read all of Sebald&#8217;s &#8220;fictions&#8221; (though I still need to review <em>Austerlitz<\/em>), and this one remains my favorite, regardless of how masterful the others are. Here Sebald writes about four survivors of the Holocaust, but it&#8217;s true power lies in its account of the ghostly past.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are some September recommendations! <a href=\"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2011\/09\/01\/september-recommendations\/\"><u>Read the full post<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"libsyn-item-id":0,"libsyn-show-id":0,"libsyn-post-error":"","libsyn-post-error_post-type":"","libsyn-post-error_post-permissions":"","libsyn-post-error_api":"","playlist-podcast-url":"","libsyn-episode-thumbnail":"","libsyn-episode-widescreen_image":"","libsyn-episode-blog_image":"","libsyn-episode-background_image":"","libsyn-post-episode-category-selection":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_thumbnail":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_theme":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_height":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_width":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_placement":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link_text":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_custom_color":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-explicit":"","libsyn-post-episode":"","libsyn-post-episode-update-id3":"","libsyn-post-episode-release-date":"","libsyn-post-episode-simple-download":"","libsyn-release-date":"","libsyn-post-update-release-date":"","libsyn-is_draft":"","libsyn-new-media-media":"","libsyn-post-episode-subtitle":"","libsyn-new-media-image":"","libsyn-post-episode-keywords":"","libsyn-post-itunes":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-season-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-type":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-title":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-author":"","libsyn-destination-releases":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-enabled":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-input-enabled":false,"libsyn-post-episode-premium_state":"","libsyn-episode-shortcode":"","libsyn-episode-embedurl":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[271],"tags":[],"coauthors":[505],"class_list":["post-6292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monthly-recommendations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/the-remains-of-the-day.jpg?fit=308%2C475&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqqvZ-1Du","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6292"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19164,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292\/revisions\/19164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6292"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}