Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning. Viktor E. Frankl.

Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning.
Viktor E. Frankl.
Insight Books: 1997.

A series of lectures and essays by Frankl, the inventor/developer of Logotherapy, a theory of psychology he developed while in WWII concentration camps. Besides Jungian theory -- which really appeals to my aesthetic side -- this is the only psychology I have found which I feel is pretty much correct. His basic tenet is that people's primary objective is to find meaning, "logo", in and for our lives. Along with this, Frankl believes that man is spiritual at core. Thus, for us to be really happy, even in a concentration camp, we must see a spiritual meaning for our lives. This doesn't mean we have to know the Meaning of Life, but at least an individual meaning.

Logotherapy is practical, though not to the extreme of behaviorism, yet it keeps psychology existential and humanist, not reducing man to Freudian drives & impulses.

An extremely important book, with a lot of truth mixed in. A good one to reread every few years.

The Story Without a Name/A Nameless Story. Barbey d'Aurevilly.

The Story Without a Name.
Barbey d'Aurevilly.
W. B. Conkey: 1882/1902.

An interesting little book, with a Robert Louis Stevenson short story at the end. For some reason, "Collins" is on the spine of this book (along with the title "Nameless Story"), but this was penned by d'Aurevilly although he is not credited anywhere in the book. Most likely a pirated edition. The first legit U.S. edition seems to be 1919 published by Brentano's of New York.

At times, this book seems almost more of a sketch of a longer one. This story takes place in a remote valley, where a widow and her daughter are host to a wondering Capuchin monk for a few weeks. Neither like him, and they are relieved when he leaves.

The daughter, Lasthenie de Ferjol, becomes sick, and her mother thinks she's in love; a suspicion reinforced when the daughter is discovered to be pregnant! Lasthenie has no knowledge of how this happened. Mme. de Ferjol is harsh and unforgiving. Daughter gives birth to still-born, slowly pines away and dies, not having spoken for years. Of course, it turns out that the monk was the father of the baby, and the mother goes to the grave and curses him.

Sections of nice detailed writing interspersed by long sections of simple, almost hurried writing (or translation.) Could be reworked into a great gothic or Dickens novel.

Interestingly enough, French doctors have described as "Syndrome of Lasthénie de Ferjol" a syndrome in which women bleed themselves repeatedly and secretly to the point of death or grave illness.

Too Many Cooks. Rex Stout.

Too Many Cooks.
Rex Stout

This is a Nero Wolfe mystery. Wolfe is a big fat detective, and his stories generally have a gastronomical lean.

The great chefs of the world hold a conference, and one of them is murdered. The killer is very easy to identify, and although this is written as a Christie-like mystery, you get the feeling that Archie Goodwin, Nero's sidekick, would rather be (or thinks he is) in a hard-boiled detective novel. At any rate, his very dry, sarcastic wit carries the story along, and Nero Wolfe himself is more of a plot device than a truly interesting character (although he does have his share of good lines.)