E. M. Forster, A New Life, by Wendy Moffatt

I think I first heard about E.M.Forster on Virginia Woolf's diaries, then I watched the movies based on A Room with a View, Maurice, Howards End and A Passage to India, and only then started reading his books. And I like them immensely, in a couple of years I read the novels that had been adapted to movies and a few collections of short stories and essays. He's a wonderful writer; not as famous or influential as his contemporaries Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence or Christopher Isherwood, he is perfectly at the same level. My favourites are by far Howards End, A Passage to India and Pharos and Pharillon, I intend to read them again sometime soon. For many years, and still now, the words only connect are specially meaningful to me. And I remember my first time in Florence, when I thought to myself I'm in Santa Croce without a Baedecker and laughed silently.

Then, there's his life - I always liked biographies, particularly of people I admire or that interest me in some way. I knew the main facts of Forster's life for a long time, but recently I noticed this biography mentioned by someone whose opinion in books I value very much, so I ordered it, and I'm glad I did. Elegantly and affectionately written, some may say is to centered on his homosexuality, but in Forster's case, his homosexuality was the determinant fact about his life and his writing, according to his own words. I probably would have liked to read more about the conception and writing of his major novels, which is something that always interests me about a writer, but there's still just enough about that - I particularly liked the parts about the genesis of The Longest Journey (that I haven't read yet) and A Passage to India, and his discovery of and reaction to Cavafy, one of my favourite poets. There's plenty of gossip and details about his relationships and affairs - and who isn't pleased, even if guiltily, with gossip? - which are very informative about his character and personality, and also much information about his connections with many gay artists I didn't know, like the American Greenwich Village set of the late 1940s. In our present day identity-politics obsessed society, his lifelong attitudes regarding sex, race and class may be dismissively considered tibious or coward, but that's a very judgemental position, in my opinion. Not everybody is shaped to be an activist, and in his way, he actually contributed a lot to causes I cherish, like civilisation, tolerance and intellectual, personal and artistic freedom. Life is complicated, and there are many different ways to take your stand. And I think that through his art and his life, E.M. Forster contributed to make the world a better place, and what more can one wish from someone?

Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter

This is a very nice book, an engaging, romantic and enjoyable novel. The plot is clever, the writing smooth, intertwining funny and dramatic bits effortlessly. It's an optimistic, feel-good book, the kind that pleases you while you're reading and leaves a happy aftertaste. It's a great novel to make you feel better about life and its memorable moments.

Ulysses, by James Joyce

It took me literally decades to start reading Ulysses, but I finally did it. When I started reading more "serious" books, the only Portuguese translation available was in Brazilian Portuguese, that I dislike, so I never read it. Later, when I became able to read fluently in English, I lacked for a long time the courage to tackle such a long and famously difficult text - I bought it in 2007 but it stayed on the shelf all these years. Was it worth the wait? Sometimes I didn't think so, but in the end I'm glad I read it, not only because I would always feel I should have read such a famously celebrated work. It's certainly not an easy read. Several times I had to struggle to get by, but it actually got easier along the way, and the final impression was rather positive.
It's certainly a work of genius, the writing is amazing, in several different styles, extremely rich and clever. I'm not so familiar with the Odyssey to be able to recognise many of the episodes, but the narrative is nevertheless interesting and fetching by itself. So why not give it 5 stars? Because in some way it felt somewhat dated. I'm sure it must have been a remarkable breakthrough at the time, due to the the frankness of the narrative and the experimental style, but 100 years later, after so many stream-of-consciousness and experimental books, after Virginia Woolf, Samuel Beckett, Mikhail Bulgakov, etc, it doesn't convey anymore the kind of shock it must have done at the time it was written, and those other many books can connect with us today more easily than Ulysses - at least, that's my opinion, that's how I felt about it.
Anyway, it's still worth reading, if for no other reason for the incredible and beautiful mastery of the English language, it must have been one of the most impressive books I have read in that regard.