April 2020 24-Hour Readathon Live Blog

April 25, 9:23 a.m.: Just over four hours have passed since we started this readathon.  I've finished just over 127 pages of Midnight in Chernobyl, but Monique has already finished reading her book, The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande.  Looks like I have a lot fo watching up to do.

April 25, 2020 4:58 a.m.: It't time for another 24 hour readtathon!  This time, I am taking part in the classic Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and I am not alone as my fiancé, Monique, will be joining me.  We are even having a friendly competition going on of seeing who can read the most.  This is where I will be live blogging for the day, so come check out our progress often.  I've got my tea ready and I am going to get started with the book, Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham.  Wish us luck!

"King Vampire": A Review of Dracula

Dracula by Bram Stoker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Though vampires, the legendary blood-sucking monsters, have been around in our stories and mythology for a long time. However, Dracula by Bram Stoker is where vampires truly entered the human imagination and have never really left, though zombie stories have recently been gaining greater popularity. Though I read and adored The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which is heavily influenced by Dracula, I had never gotten around to reading it until now and I was not disappointed at all.

Dracula is still a great novel to read. The pace, the tension, the mystery, and the eye brow-raising sexual undertones are worthy of any current thriller or horror novel. I was also surprised at how violent this book was. I guess I should not have been surprised considering the main villain is a monster that sucks the blood of its victims, but given the time it was published, I guess I was expecting something a bit more clean in its presentations of violence. Instead, this book features a good amount of flowing blood that would seem pretty standard in an Anne Rice novel. And I was hooked by the mystery and the chase this book devolves into as the main characters race to bring an end to Count Dracula's evil reign before it is too late.

This is not a perfect book though. Some of the conventions of a typical Victorian novel are still here and have still not aged very well. In particular, Mr. Stoker's implementation of lengthy, flowery dialogue and the excessive emotionalism began to grate on me after a while. So many of the male characters would cry at any one point that it started to become a little maudlin. Mr. Stoker also has a tendency to use dialogue rather than action to move the story along. When they are chasing Dracula in the third act, the dialogue read more like a committee than anything real. But, while all of this was annoying, it did not fully detract from my enjoyment of the novel.

Whether you are interested in vampires or not, this is a thrilling novel that still holds up over a 120+ years later. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in thrillers and/or horror novels.

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World Come Falling Down: A Review of State Tectonics

State Tectonics by Malka Ann Older

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In her previous books in this series, Infomocracy and Null States, Malka Ann Older has created a futuristic government known as micro-democracy and a powerful data platform in charge of running it all known as Information. What is interesting is that she has always been questioning the very system that she has created. In this concluding novel to her Centenal Cycle series, micro-democracy reaches a crisis point that it may not survive.

There are many things to love in this book. Ms. Older has honed her ability to write a taut thriller where the pages leading up to the climax were hard to put down. She also continues a trend from her previous book where she brought peripheral characters in the past to the forefront. Unlike the previous book though, she doesn't leave previous main characters behind. The previous characters, such as Roz, Mishima, and Ken, all have an important role to play. It does get a little confusing at the climax, but it shouldn't be too hard to follow along.

There are still a few problems with this book. Though it has gotten much easier after three novels, I am still not a big fan of Ms. Older's use of the present tense. Also, while I thought it was very good of Ms. Older to question the world government, but in her books micro-democracy has only existed for 25 years before reaching its next crisis. I don't wish to spoil anything about this book, but it feels like not a lot of time has passed for this system before things start to go bad. I know it's a small point, but she could've given her system more time before shaking things up. Then it would feel like there were real stakes involved with the story overall.

Ms. Older has improved on a lot that held her back previously and she seems to be getting better. I look forward to seeing her writing prowess grow even further in future novels.

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Moral Clarity in Disturbing Times: A Review of Reclaiming Jesus

Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus by Jim Wallis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The election of Donald Trump in 2016, the White Supremacist march in Charlottesville, VA, in 2017, the separation of immigrant families at the U.S. southern border, and many other events have been a terrible wake up call to the moral decay that has infected the highest levels of our government. Though popular imaginations of Christianity in America have Christians being some of the strongest supporters of Pres. Trump, what the media too often fails to notice is the large numbers of faithful Christians throughout the country who are just as appalled by recent events as other Americans are, but perhaps more so as it seems to cut to the very heart of everything the gospel of Jesus Christ is suppose to oppose. Jim Wallis is one such prominent Christian thinker and activist who has been calling on Christians in America not, as he puts it, to go left or right, but to go deeper into faith. In this incredibly timely book, Rev. Wallis examines the core questions at the heart of the Gospel message and applies the answers to our current political time.

Inspired by the Reclaiming Jesus Movement that was kicked off in 2018, Rev. Wallis takes a deep dive into the Gospel and our current political environment (I highly recommend you visit the website as well as watch their video statement for more information). In a time where lies, corruption, and authoritarian actions at the highest levels of our government seem to define our daily headlines, Rev. Wallis gives the morally clearest statement of how Christians should respond to the times from anyone inside our outside the faith I have ever read. And the fact that this book is centered on the strong moral principles taught in the Bible, as exemplified in Matthew 5 & 25, of loving your neighbor as yourself is deeply stirring. As I wrapped up reading this book over the course of the Lenten season (and using a Lenten study guide to do so), I have been deeply stirred to "be transformed by the renewing of my mind" (Romans 12:2). The lessons I have learned from this book as well as the many other resources Sojourners has provided will be sitting with me for a long time.

This book will not appeal to everyone, unfortunately. For those who are already "ride or die" for Pres. Trump will be turned off by Rev. Wallis's unrelenting criticism of him and his administrations. There were one or two places where I thought that even Rev. Wallis was starting to lose sight of his topic, but his long criticisms always have the point of contrasting what is happening in our country and government to what the Gospel calls Christians to be and how to act at all times. I also fear that the closeness of some Christian denominations to right and far right politics will turn off others from reading a book on social justice in our present times with Jesus at its center. On top of that, depending on how the 2020 presidential election shakes out what the future of America holds post-Trump, this book and its social critiques may have a limited shelf life.

That said, this is a deeply moving call to action and social justice to Christians in America and around the world. Whether you are Christian or not, American or not, pro-Trump or not, I wish everyone would read this book and "go deeper" into the Gospels. The country is in need of strong moral clarity and Rev. Wallis provides it in this book.

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All Roads Lead to China?: A Review of The New Silk Roads

The New Silk Roads: The New Asia and the Remaking of the World Order by Peter Frankopan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There has been a plethora of books about China and it's economic and political rise in the early 21st century such as Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos and Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century by Orville Schell. However, too few of those books look at China in its regional context. That is a serious oversight considering China's Road and Belt Initiative that was announced a few years ago. In this valiant attempt to try to look at the vast Eurasian land mass and try to divine the tea leaves, Peter Frankopan, author of the acclaimed history The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, does just that.

Looking at the economic rise of China and the relative disarray in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, Frankopan makes the argument that the balance of economic and political power is shifting back from the West to the East. This is not a new argument to anyone even remotely familiar with recent international affairs, but the key insight Mr. Frankopan brings to the table is looking at the region as a whole and how China's influence runs deep for both good and ill. Mr. Frankopan even briefly expands his scope in several places to China's growing influence in Africa and Latin America & Caribbean regions. Pointing to China's extension of trade and loans to these regions, especially in it's drive to knit together a new "Silk Road", China's rise is unmistakably the biggest geopolitical question for all nations today.

Though China is the main topic of this book, it is not the only one. Mr. Frankopan gives special attention to Russia and, in particular, Iran, going so far as to name all three countries as the most important ones in the region. Examining the pitfalls and promises of each country, one is left with the conclusion that the major changes in world politics will be coming out of Eurasia and not the West in the next decades.

That said, the fact that this book is rather slim, the topic is so vast and so messy, means that this book has a bit of a messy feel at times. The first chapter reads like an IR tourist's checklist of wonders that China and the region are pledging to our achieving. The first pages are not the most nuanced appraisal of the region, but Mr. Frankopan's analysis get's more nuanced as it goes along. Furthermore, while each of the chapters suggest some kind of overarching theme in each, it does not always turn out that way. Perhaps a narrative device, like a small story that branched off into the analyses Mr. Frankopan wished to convey, would've helped to focus the attention of this book.

Still, Mr. Frankopan has done a tremendous job in trying to cover so much ground in so few pages, and he mostly succeeds. This updated edition feels especially relevant, though the COVID-19 outbreak may require some reappraisals once the crisis is over. To anyone interested in Eurasia in general, China in particular, and the West's response, I highly recommend this book.

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Plague!: A Review of The Great Mortality

The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time by John     Kelly

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Compelling Melding of Science & History, with Lessons for Today

As I sit writing this review, the world is once again ravaged by disease (COVID-19) that is killing thousands around the globe and forcing millions of others to shelter in their homes and pray that this illness would pass over them. So, to say that reading this book about the Black Death, the plague that ravaged Europe
in the middle of the fourteenth century, is timely would be an understatement. The past can be both teacher and guide in times like these.

One of the great things about this book is how it is not just a recounting of death, though there is plenty of that to be had in these pages. The first few chapters and the afterword are devoted to understanding just what kind of a disease the Plague was. So, on top of reading a thorough history about how the Plague decimated the Eurasian continent, you will have better scientific understanding of the disease itself, where it originated from, and how it spread and killed.

Of course, Mr. Kelly uses the majority of his narrative to describe the when and where the Plague struck Europe and how it left a wake of human destruction in its path. Through the use of the best statistical information available as well as the numerous contemporary accounts that were written at the time, Mr. Kelly’s history is both incredibly thorough and accessible. There is something for both the hardcore historian and the layman to like in this book. At times, it even seems a little excessive. Mr. Kelly devotes two chapters to the Plague’s rampage through England when probably one chapter would have done.

Mr. Kelly does not restrict his history to the disease’s destruction. Mr. Kelly also points out how the Black Death affected society in several negative ways. One of the most horrendous and heartbreaking portions of this book is about the number of pogroms committed against Europe’s Jewish populations that would presage the Holocaust in a number of horrifying ways. Just as COVID-19 is unleashing a wave of anti-Asian American bigotry right now, so too did the Plague unleash a wave of virulent and violent anti-semitism, though the currently bigotry against Asian-Americans is nowhere near as violent as the Plague pogroms were.

By the time the Plague dissipated, the tinder of overpopulation, resource strain, climate change and religious & intellectual stagnation that defined Europe in the years prior to its arrival would all be burned away, paving the way for the Renaissance, the Reformation, and modern Europe. By chronicling this critical period in world history, Mr. Kelly has given us a wonder picture of both the medieval era and the calamitous disease that signaled the beginning of its end. It also holds up a mirror to our own time and warns us that virulent disease, if left unchecked, can easily devastate human civilization. Whether you are living in a time of disease yourself or not, you owe it to yourself to read this book about one of the greatest natural disasters to befall humanity.

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Moving On: A Review of Lincoln in the Bardo

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

One of the great tragedies to happen in the midst of the tragedy that was the U.S. Civil War was the death of Pres. Abraham Lincoln's young son Willie in early 1862. Distraught, Pres. Lincoln visits the grave of his son several times in the dead of night not long after the body is interred. Using this, George Saunders spins a ghost story about love and loss and how hard it is for both the living and the dead to move on.

Before you dive into this novel, it is important to note that Mr. Saunders does not follow the typical grammar conventions. For nearly every line of dialogue, rather than the typical "[dialogue]," said Mr. Smith you would find in a typical novel, Mr. Saunders uses citation, almost like what you would see at the end of a block quote in a non-fiction work of history or an academic paper. I found this to be both helpful and confusing. It was helpful because Mr. Saunders uses a large number of characters to narrate throughout, so the citation at the end of each bit of dialogue helped me to keep track of who was speaking at any given time. Mr. Saunders also does quote several memoirs and history books about Lincoln during this time, so the citations helped ground this work of historical fiction in some reality. However, because Mr. Saunders could move rapidly between different characters, this method of narrating could get confusing at times, especially when the action begins to really pick up at the climax.

I used the phrase "ghost story" at the top because the main cast of characters is entirely dead, though many of them either don't know it or refuse to believe it for reasons you have to read the book to understand. The way that the dead interact with the living, or attempt to, is fascinating, though it is unclear how much influence the netherworld has on the living in this book. If anything, the living seems to have a far greater influence on the dead in Saunders' telling. And yet, both sides are trying to figure out how to move on, or whether or not they want to. It's an interesting mediation on loss and grief.

There is much to like and even love in this book. The picture of Lincoln as a man is one of the best I have read outside of my typical history books. For fans of literary fiction, historical fiction, and Abraham Lincoln, I would recommend this read be put on your list. 

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My First Encounter with James Baldwin: A Review of Go Tell It On The Mountain

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have never read any of James Baldwin's works before, but there has been a recent renaissance in interest in this seminal American author thanks to documentaries such as I Am Not Your Negro or movies such as If Beale Street Could Talk based on his works. I was a little trepidatious about picking up the work of an author I had never read before, but I was not disappointed. This is an incredibly powerful story about sin and hypocrisy, religious strictures and religious freedom, dark pasts and bright futures and though it took me a few pages to come around to this book, once I was in I was enthralled.

Set in Harlem church and community in the mid-1930s, this book follows a day in the life of a teenage boy named John who lives under the strict rule of his religious and proud step-father, Gabriel. Accompanied by his mother, Elizabeth, and his step-aunt, Florence, to church. While the congregants are singing and preaching, the three adults reflect on their past in prayer while John begins to undergo a significant religious experience. The plot is not particularly complicated, though I was a little confused by whether or not John knew about his parentage or if he found out in the course of this story and I had to consult the book's SparkNotes to confirm that plot detail. What makes this book truly moving is the prose itself. The last part, John's religious conversion, is incredibly powerful and ties all the themes and plot threads from before beautifully. Normally, I would reserve some criticism, but I honestly can't think of any. Like I said, I was a little confused by one plot point and I think I was a little confused by what was going on in the first 30 pages, but that is due to the piecemeal way I started the book rather than to any fault of the author.

Whether you know of James Baldwin or not, this is a great work of 20th century literature that should not be missed. Even now, I am looking forward to what other James Baldwin books I should read next.

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