The Frugal Chariot

Reading Notes of a Bibliophile

Friday, March 27, 2026

Conquest Masquerading as Aid

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Violent Saviors: The West's Conquest of the Res t  by William Easterly "The quest for agency is everywhere and nowhere in the busin...
Sunday, March 22, 2026

In the Shadows

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The Roving Shadows  by  Pascal Quignard "We were constructed in the shadows. Passively in the shadows." - Pascal Quignard The book...
Thursday, March 19, 2026

Clinic for the Past

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Time Shelter   by Georgi Gospodinov Time Shelter introduces Gospodinov to American readers as a key figure in international literature. Geo...
Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Being Created

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At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop “Until a man is dead, he is not yet done being created.” ― David Diop, At Night All Blood is Black...
Monday, March 16, 2026

Voices of a Guilty Past

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Ludwig's Room  by Alois Hotschnig "What we've become is horrifying and what we will become is disastrous. We're destroyed...
Sunday, March 15, 2026

Bernhard Short Stories

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Goethe Dies  by Thomas Bernhard "I went inside myself, so to speak, and not outside myself anymore." - Thomas Bernhard Thomas Be...
Friday, March 13, 2026

London Novel

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Under the Net  by Iris Murdoch “I took a deep breath, however, and followed my rule of never speaking frankly to women in moments of emotio...

A Son's Story

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If You Kept a Record of Sins   by Andrea Bajani "I think it happened to you, too, the first time you arrived." - Andrea Bajani Th...
Tuesday, March 03, 2026

Nuclear Age

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The Fate of the Earth & The Abolition  by Jonathan Schell “It was not unless one lifted one's gaze from all the allegedly normal ev...
Monday, March 02, 2026

Intense Abundance

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Heat and Dust  by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala   “Shortly before the monsoon, the heat becomes very intense. It is said that the more intense it be...
Sunday, March 01, 2026

Mystery, Bach & Aristotle

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Personae  by Sergio de la Pava "Creation is often a nebulous process, not susceptible to easy categorization, at the end of which a pro...
Saturday, February 28, 2026

Dostoevsky

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The Grand Inquisitor Ivan Karamazov tells his younger brother Alyosha the well-known parable "The Grand Inquisitor" in Fyodor Dost...
Friday, February 27, 2026

The End of the World

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On the Beach   by Nevil Shute “It's not the end of the world at all," he said. "It's only the end for us. The world will g...
Monday, February 23, 2026

Two Lives

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Twist  by Colum McCann “Not a single atom in our bodies today was there when we were children. Every bit of us has been replaced many times ...
Saturday, February 21, 2026

Dense Parable

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The Sibyl  by Pär Lagerkvist “Nothing is more foreign than the world of one's childhood when one has truly left it.” ― Pär Lagerkvist, T...
Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Evil

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The Exorcist  by William Peter Blatty “Perhaps evil is the crucible of goodness... and perhaps even Satan - Satan, in spite of himself - som...
Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Climate Change

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Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress   by Roy Scranton This is a searing investigation of the state of the world vis a vis cl...
Friday, February 06, 2026

Human Art

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  Art of Humanism   by Kenneth M. Clark “Ruskin said: ‘Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their dee...
Saturday, January 31, 2026

Some Kind of Journey

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The Folded Leaf  by William Maxwell “But to live in the world at all is to be committed to some kind of a journey.” ― William Maxwell, The F...
Thursday, January 29, 2026

Desire to be Real

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Great Expectations  by Vinson Cunningham “...I wanted to be more than a Rorschach, more legible than a symbol, more vivid and musical, at le...
Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Illustrated Memories

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The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana   by Umberto Eco “Memory is a stopgap for humans, for whom time flies and what is passed is passed.” ― U...
Friday, January 09, 2026

Fanny's Heart

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Mansfield Park   by Jane Austen “This would be the way to Fanny's heart. She was not to be won by all that gallantry and wit and good-n...
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James
Chicago, Illinois, United States
"Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live." - — Gustave Flaubert
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