Reading Recommendation: Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse

December 1st 2009 at 6:57 am

Sometimes old favorites need to be revisited.  I won’t tell you how long ago I first read Siddhartha, but it was published in 1922, which is before I was published.

At any rate, I chose to listen to it on my way down to Orycon (the drive is from Seattle to Portland, or 3 hours and change) and back.  I think partly out of yearning for something beloved and familiar, even though I haven’t read or heard it in a decade and maybe for two.

I’m pretty sure this is my third time through this book, and that each time it has seemed even more relevant to my life than the time before.  This time, the insight is that Siddhartha chose so many different paths to walk, with nearly complete re-inventions all along the way.  It seems to me that we do that in modern life.  I have been three or four different careers by now, and have spent long years celibate and long years not, and chosen different teachers at different times in my life.

It reminds me how classic fiction resonates as true to the human condition and transcends time.

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Books

Wings of Creation by Brenda Cooper

Reading the Wind cover image

Available November 10th, 2009 from Tor Books.

Reading the Wind by Brenda Cooper

Reading the Wind cover image

Audio promo:

"Brenda Cooper's newest novel is a feast of character and concept. She depicts the devastation of war on microcosmic and macrocosmic levels, and even more so, the driving motives of young men and women caught in deadly conflict. Cooper is a master explorer of the interaction of society and individuals. She probes the psychology of her genetically enhanced characters with both rare depth and fidelity to scientific plausibility. Moral conundrums drive the plot in this unforgettable narrative. Don't miss this compelling work by a major new talent." - Mary A. Turzillo, An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl.

"Brenda Cooper tells a tale of a powerful brother and sister in a fight for their lives, offering insights along the way into the nature of courage and the hunger for community that burns in every human being. This is a lively book, full of colorful images and a memorable cast of human and animal characters, a worthy successor to The Silver Ship and the Sea." - Louise Marley

Available in July, 2008, from Tor Books.

The Silver Ship and the Sea by Brenda Cooper

Silver Ship and the Sea cover image

Audio promo:

"The first solo novel by Larry Niven's Building Harlequin's Moon (2005) coauthor portrays the thoroughly convincing human colonial society on Fremont, a dangerous planet rife with vicious predators, frequent earthquakes, and falling meteors....Distinctive characterizations, well-limned interrelationships, and the vividly realized Fremont contribute to an exciting coming-of-age story with a strong message about the evils of prejudice." - Sally Estes, Copyright American Library Association.

Mass Market Paperback, July 2008.
Included by Booklist as a "Best Adult Book for Young Adults."

Building Harlequin's Moon by Brenda Cooper and Larry Niven

Building Harlequin's Moon cover image

"Fans of both hard and softer, psychological SF will welcome veteran Niven and newcome Cooper's well-written tale of a 60,000 year layover in space, in which physical challenges of world building are matched by the social challenges of collaboration among disparate groups." - Publisher's Weekly

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