Stuffed with Intrigue: A Review of Star Wars: The High Republic: Out of the Shadows by Justina Ireland

Out of the Shadows by Justina Ireland

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With the events of The Rising Storm, things have taken a darker turn in this new era of Star Wars storytelling. The tragic events of that book can be felt throughout this one, already creating an atmosphere doubt, uncertainty, and mistrust amongst the Jedi and the people of the Republic. In this YA continuation of the series, Ms. Ireland takes the reader through a tale drowning in intrigue and mystery, but wraps things up too quickly.

(Warning!: Some spoilers from The Rising Storm are included below.) 

The Rising Storm was marked by two devastating disasters: the calamitous Nihil attack on the Republic Fair on Valo and Marchion Ro’s unleashing of the Leveler, a mysterious weapon that killed Jedi Master Loden Greatstorm and left his Padawan, Bell Zettifar, in a catatonic state.  Though only the assault on the Republic Fair is directly mentioned in this book, both of these tragedies weigh heavily on all of the Jedi and Republic forces and there is much debate about what should be done and what role the Jedi should play.

Into this story comes three characters: Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh, the pilot Sylvestri Yarrow, and Padawan Reath Silas.  Sylvestri, or Syl, is a completely new character while Reath Silas is a returning character from the previous YA novel and Vernestra Rwoh is familiar to readers of the High Republic comics or middle grade novels.  Each of them is fascinating in their own way, with Rwoh being the standout as she is both a capable Jedi Knight as well as young, unsure, teenager.  Each one of them have their own views on what the Jedi should do about the Nihil threat, which creates a nice backdrop debate for this book.

The narrative surrounds a seemingly empty part of space where Syl lost her space ship to Nihil.  But there is more going on than meets the eye and all of our characters soon find themselves caught in a web of business and political intrigue connected to another new weapon the Nihil are building.

Though I have been thoroughly enjoying the High Republic series thus far, I must confess that this is my least favorite book in the series so far.  There are two reasons for this.  The first is that it dwells way too long on the business and political intrigue aspect of the story.  Throughout the book, there are secret agendas being pushed throughout and, because of it,  our main characters don’t have as much agency as they do in previous novels.  Furthermore, the intrigue and mystery surrounding this empty space sector gobble up nearly all of the action.  By the time the big reveal happens, Ms. Ireland leaves very little room for the action to happen, whipping through to the conclusion like crazy.  Thus, I found my attention getting strained in the middle of the book and then finding myself whipsawed through to a quick conclusion at the end.

The other major drawback of this book is the number of characters.  On top our three main characters, there is a shady rich businessman named Xylan Graf, a duplicitous senator, a love interest for Syl, a Nihil named Nan, known to readers of the previous YA novel in the series, Reath Silas’s Jedi master, and Vernestra Rwoh’s empathic Padawan.  There are a few other characters that come in and out of the story too, one of which I can’t share because it would spoil one of the mysteries at the heart of this novel, but none of them, with the exception of Xylan Graf, get enough meaningful screen time.  And that is a shame because some of them, like Jedi Master Cohmac Vitus, are fascinating characters in their own right.  Because of the number of characters, the story struggles to give some of them a meaningful role to play. 

One of the characters who does get a lot of screen time, and I hope gets a lot more in future adult and YA novels in the series, is Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh.  As the youngest Jedi Knight in a generation, Vern is an interesting character in her own right.  She is incredibly capable with a good head on her shoulders and an unusual Force connection to hyperspace.  It seems the mystery of how hyperspace really works is still being held close to the chest by the Lucasfilm overseers of the High Republic series.  It was also great to see Padawan Reath Silas again.  He was the standout character in the first YA novel and it is great to see him get more comfortable going on adventures, even if he would still prefer to spend his time in the Jedi Archives.  Sylevstri Yarrow is the weaker character in this book, but still fascinating in her own right.  I hope to see more of her in the future.

I will also say that the mystery at the heart of this novel is fascinating and it does tie into a weapon that is familiar to Star Wars fans (no, it’s no the Death Star).  And though the narrative favors intrigue over action, the action parts are quite good when allowed to breathe.  Indeed, I could have seen the action at the climax of the novel go on for a little longer and I would not have minded at all.  Sadly, too much of the action does get cut short.

Overall, this book has three very interesting main characters, some good action, and a decent mystery.  But it wallows too long in that intrigue and mystery and is overstuffed with side characters.  Also, by the end of the novel, it felt like it was overly concerned with setting up future stories.  Though I did enjoy this book in the end, it has not been my favorite novel of the series so far.

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Another Hidden Gem Worth Picking Up: A Review of the Writings of James Weldon Johnson from the Library of America

James Weldon Johnson: Writings by James Weldon Johnson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have been in love with the Library of America (LOA) for a long time now and there are two main reasons why. First, the uniform book designs are just gorgeous. Put a row of LOA’s books together on your shelf and they are a definite conversation start. On top of that, if you treat them well, these books will last a long time on your shelf long after your other books have yellowed and collected dust. The other reason why I love LOA books is because of their commitment to keeping great works of American literature, both well-known and lesser known, in print in perpetuity. This gives ordinary Americans a chance to discover more obscure, but wonderful, works by authors they may never have heard of, such as Henry Adams’s History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and History of the United States During the Administrations of James Madison . This single-volume collection of the writings of James Weldon Johnson is another one of those more obscure gems that LOA has that deserves to better known.

James Weldon Johnson was an African-American polymath at the turn of the century.  He was a writer, an educator, a musical composer, a poet, an early leader of the NAACP, and a diplomat.  Sadly, I knew nothing about him until I picked up this book from LOA not too long ago.  And yet he had an impact on American politics and culture deeper than most people realize.  His novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, which is the first work included in this volume, is one of the first works in American literature to deal directly with the issues of colorism and white passing that are now more commonly discussed today.  His musical writing included the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is celebrated even today as the Black national anthem.  As the NAACP’s first executive secretary, he expanded the organizations reach into the South and initiated some of the first lawsuits against the region’s disenfranchisement of Black Americans, though Mr. Johnson would die long before those efforts would come to fruition in Brown v. Board of Education and the major civil rights laws of the 1960s.  And his work as a diplomat enabled him to write with great knowledge and insight on issues such as the U.S. occupation of Haiti (that essay is also included in this volume as well).  In many ways, James Weldon Johnson is a forerunner to both the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement.

This volume of his works is wonderful.  Along with Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is Mr. Johnson’s own memoirs, which gives an intimate view of his life from his perspective.  Mr. Johnson’s essays are some of this books highlights, particularly his essay on the U.S. occupation of Haiti, which should be more widely read today as Haiti once again descends into political chaos and Americans wonder what, if anything, should be done.  The inclusion of several of Mr. Johnson’s poems and lyrics, including the famous “Lift Every Voice”, is also a treat.  The only weak point in this volume is the inclusion of a couple of chapters Mr. Johnson wrote for a book called Black Manhattan about Black Americans in the theater around the turn of the century.  As a writer of Broadway musicals himself, Mr. Johnson was an expert on the theater and it shows in these excerpts.  However, it is also a very esoteric subject.  Only those with a keen interest in the history of American theater, and especially of Black Americans in the theater, are likely to enjoy this section.

Overall, this another hidden gem within the Library of America’s collection.  This book should be read alongside the works of W.E.B Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, and other near contemporary Black authors of the period.  If you have made your way through the works of the Harlem Renaissance, I highly recommend this volume as your next read.

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It's A Start: A Review of the Library of America's first Ernest Hemingway Collection

Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises & Other Writings 1918-1926 by Ernest Hemingway

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Library of America is the premier non-profit organization dedicated to preserving America’s literary heritage for all time. Classic American authors from Mark Twain and John Steinbeck to James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston will have their works printed in perpetuity in fine cloth-bound hardcover editions. Having been in business since the 1980s, Library of America has an impressive collection of authors and works, some of which have been out of print for a long time. However, one landmark of the American literary landscape has been conspicuously missing: Ernest Hemingway. This is due to copyright laws that have been guarded zealously by Hemingway’s publisher, but with the recent lapsing of those copyright protections, Library of America has published its first volume of Hemingway’s collected works in this volume. Was it worth the wait?

Hemingway was a powerful writer, but he didn’t become one overnight.  Like many writers, Hemingway had to work to perfect that writing.  This volume collects 8 years of his earliest works including a collection of his newspaper articles for the Toronto Star Weekly and other newspapers.  It also includes the original and an early version of his first short story collection, In Our Time, his “satire” The Torrents of Spring, his first novel The Sun Also Rises, and a selection of his personal letters from this period.  It gives an incredible picture of Hemingway’s raw talent and his progress into the great American author he would become.

Both the journalism and In Our Time short stories are a bit up and down, like any selection of short stories.  A few news articles really stick out such as Hemingway visiting a barbers’ school to get a free shave and a haircut from the students and his first reports on bullfighting in Spain, foreshadowing his lifelong love of the sport.  For his short stories, “Up in Michigan” and “Indian Camp” stand out as well.  But, like any other short story or essay collection I have read, there are just as many misses as there are hits.  Overall, though, they were fascinating.

As for The Torrents of Spring, this is one of the funniest parts of this edition because of its fascinating backstory.  After publishing In Our Time, Hemingway wanted to get out of the contract with his first publisher and switch to a new one, but they needed to reject a novel of his before they could do that.  So, he wrote this “satire” in the hopes that his publisher would do that just that.  And boy is this a doozy of a bad novel as it is incredibly circular with no real narrative and some very odd fourth-wall breaks.  Knowing this background, The Torrents of Spring is good because of just how bad it is.

Then there is The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway’s first success as a novelist.  What more can be said about this book that has not already been said.  Just like its contemporary The Great Gatsby by Hemingway’s friend, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Sun Also Rises is very much a Lost Generation novel with its tale of the idle rich, conspicuous consumption, a self-absorbed heroine desired by the main character, and its questioning of masculinity in a post-World War I modern age.  This is one novel that I feel will have greater resonance with me after one or two rereadings, but my reading of this novel is someone slanted due to my slow slog through this book.  So, I shall reserve my judgement of this novel until I have had another chance to read it.

That leaves the final section of this edition, which is a collection of Heminway’s personal letters from this period.  This is perhaps the weakest part of this edition.  While The Torrents of Spring is bad in a good way, Hemingway’s letters are just bad.  Hemingway’s style of writing letters, particularly his earliest letters, is practically incoherent.  Misspellings and grammatical errors abound making these letters almost impossible to understand.  Even when the misspellings become fewer and further between, very few of them ever raise an eyebrow of interest.  Those surrounding the publication of In Our Time, The Torrents of Spring, and The Sun Also Rises are interesting, but the rest are boring or unintelligible.  Library of America typically includes these letters to give a fuller picture of what is going on in the life of the author at that time, but these letters were so uninteresting and with few tidbits about Hemingway’s life that it becomes more a chore than a pleasure to read.  Perhaps hardcore Hemingway fans who know more of about his life will get a kick out of these letters, but I couldn’t do much more than skim them.

Overall, Library of America has started its Hemingway collection very well.  Not everything is a hit here, but then again, few authors ever start their career having perfected their craft.  While the letters section should be skipped by the layman, hardcore Hemingway fans may find them insightful.  I would recommend this book to those hardcore Hemingway fans as well as those who are just looking to take a deeper dive into Hemingway’s early life and works.

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City of Blinding Lights: A Review of City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Since J.R.R. Tolkien wrote one of the first modern fantasy series with both The Hobbit, or There and Back Again and The Lord of the Rings, much of the fantasy landscape has been dominated by white, Northern European roadmap mythologies and tropes. However, in recent years a slew of authors have been writing fantasy novels from new perspectives and breaking this mould. Tomi Adeyemi, for example, has published two YA fantasy novels based on African mythology. In this novel, Ms. Chakraborty has written an excellent fantasy novel based on Middle Eastern mythology and folklore that further breaks that old mould.

Set around the time of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt, this book follows two main characters: Nahri, a Cairo street thief with an unknown pedigree, and Ali, a sensitive and devout prince of Daevabad, the mythic and titular city of brass in this novel.  When Nahri accidentally frees Dara, an ancient Daeva (or Djinn) warrior, from a magical imprisonment, thus endangering her life, they flee across the Middle East to try to find safety in Daevabad.  But their journey to the City of Brass is only the beginning of their travails as the conquest of the city centuries ago has led to oppression and racial tension within the city that threatens to blow up at any point.  Ali, in his desire to do good, walks a precarious line between the supporting the city’s oppressed subjects and remaining loyal to his family.  But Nahri and Dara’s arrival in Daevabad threatens to break all of these tensions wide open.

One of the key features of any new fantasy series is the world-building.  Without quality world-building, a fantasy series can completely collapse.  Thankfully, Ms. Chakraborty has done an incredible job of building up this fantasy world.  It is populated with numerous races and creatures, each one of them with a unique origin and magical powers.  For those of you looking for a dense new fantasy world to jump into, look no further than this novel.  That said, Ms. Chakraborty’s world-building is both a strength and a weakness.  At times, the amount of background and number of different magical races, each with their own particular origin, powers, and grievances felt a little too overwhelming.  I was especially confused by the conflict between Daevabad’s residents that informs much of the novel’s plot and it wasn’t until I had finished the book that it started to click a little.  Ms. Chakraborty does have a few parts in the first half of the book where the world is explained to Nahri and the reader, so I would suggest that new readers slow down at those parts and maybe even reread them to make sure that they understand everything.

Fantasy novels are also known for having a good amount of action in its narrative and this book is no exception.  From Nahri and Dara’s close calls on the road to Daevabad to the climactic battle at the end of the novel, Ms. Chakraborty knows how to write a pulse-pounding action sequence.  I was totally enthralled by the climax as narrative threads and characters smashed up against each other in a glorious mess that makes me eager to find out what happens next.  There is a good amount of political intrigue here to satiate any Game of Thrones fans.  There is also a bit of a love triangle that happens between the three main characters that, on its surface, may seem a little trope-ish and rushed, especially near the middle of the book, but actually feels right for this story.  That said, there is a lot of time jumping that happens in this story.  For example, in one chapter, Nahri and Dara have just entered the city and in the next chapter two weeks have passed.  To be fair, significant time jumping was probably necessary to keep the narrative without unnecessarily slowing down, but I nevertheless felt a little whiplash reading this book at times.

Overall, this is an excellent start to new type of fantasy novels that continues to break the old mould and reinvigorate the genre.  If you are looking for something new and unique in your fantasy books, I would highly recommend this book to you.

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Feminist Literature's Prophet: A Review of Novels & Stories by Zora Neale Hurston (Library of America No. 74)

Zora Neale Hurston : Novels and Stories : Jonah's Gourd Vine / Their Eyes Were Watching God / Moses, Man of the Mountain / Seraph on the Suwanee / Selected Stories by Zora Neale Hurston

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Zora Neale Hurston was an African-American novelist and anthropologist who rose to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance and wrote the classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Sadly, much of Ms. Hurston’s fictional work were not popular with the public at large until well after her death in 1960. This volume from the Library of America gathers four of her fictional novels and a few of her short stories, including Their Eyes Were Watching God and Moses, Man of the Mountain. Through this collection, one can read the full breadth of Ms. Hurston’s fictional talent and all the good and bad elements of it.

Most of this book’s staggering 1000+ page count is used by her four novels, starting with her first novel Jonah’s Gourd Vine and includes: Their Eyes Were Watching God; Moses, Man of the Mountain; and Seraph on the Suwanee.  The last 100 pages or so consist of her short stories.  When talking about her novels, you cannot skip over Their Eyes Were Watching God.  This now classic tale of female empowerment would prefigure and inspire such African-American novelists as Alice Walker, who would do much to rescue Ms. Hurston’s works from obscurity after her death.  But to me, the most interesting novels in this collection are Moses, Man of the Mountain and Seraph on the Suwanee.  The first is the retelling of the Biblical tale of the Exodus, with a bit of Ms. Hurston’s flare from her previous works thrown in for good measure.  It was a throughly entertaining retelling of an otherwise familiar story.  Seraph is interesting because it was a departure for Ms. Hurston.  Whereas Jonah and Their Eyes, and one could rightfully argue Moses, revolved mostly around black characters, Seraph revolved mostly around white characters.  And yet Ms. Hurston’s fascination with marital relations, which is a common theme throughout almost all of her fictional work, is at the very heart of this book.

In terms of her short stories, the ones that stuck out to me were “John Redding Goes to Sea”, “Spunk”, “The Bone of Contention” and “The Fire and the Cloud”.  I especially enjoyed “The Fire and the Cloud” as it is a short story about Moses, written in the same style as Moses, Man of the Mountain, and sees Moses at the end of his life just before the Israelites are about to enter the promised land.  Thus, its a little addendum to Moses that puts a little bow on that novels ending.

While each of the novels and stories has their own highpoints and drawbacks, one of the most persistent drawbacks of this book is Ms. Hurston’s use of dialect for her characters’ dialogue.  In both Jonah and Their Eyes as well as all but one of her short stories, Ms. Hurston uses dialect for all of her characters' dialogue.  As I understand it, dialect as used by Ms. Hurston and other writers is suppose to make the story and the characters more realistic, but I have always found it difficult to enjoy it.  To me, it just adds an unnecessary layer of complexity to the story and slows down my reading pace (it took me twice as long to finish this book than I had originally planned).  It also seems unnecessary to me as in both Moses and Seraph, Ms. Hurston jettisons the dialect, but is still able to convey her character’s realistic accents without it.  So, if you are not fan of dialect, just know that this book may turn into a bit of a slog, especially at the beginning.

Zora Neale Hurston was a pioneer of black feminist literature in America, even if her contemporary audiences didn’t fully appreciate her talents.  This volume is a worthy inclusion in the Library of America and I highly recommend it to fans of African-American literature in general and specifically the literature of the Harlem Renaissance.

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Community Connections: A Review of Still Water Saints by Alex Espinoza

Still Water Saints by Alex Espinoza

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Despite our world being hyper-connected by the internet and social media, it can at times feel as though society is losing touch with the things that connect us to each other as a local community, whether they be certain people, places or beliefs. In this slow, but poignant tale, Alex Espinoza writes about a year in the life of a botaníca shop, its Latina owner, and the lives of the people connected to it, even in just a tangential way.

Perla is the owner of the botaníca shop at the heart of this novel.  She’s a widow who has been running the shop for years that specializes in selling home remedies for people’s ailments whether they be physical, emotional, or spiritual.  During the year catalogued in this novel, Perla befriends a young, undocumented immigrant named Rodrigo whom she comes to care for deeply.  His traumatic past affects Perla deeply and she tries to help him far more than any of the other people who come through her shop.  At the same time, the main plot is broken up by a series of first person narratives of people who are connected to Perla’s shop, even if they just stopped in for a short visit.  While the main plot is quite linear, these sub plots seem to bounce around the timeline a little bit.  

Mr. Espinoza displays a great deal of empathy for his characters throughout this book.  While Perla is the main character, each of the main characters in the sub plots also shine in unique ways.  While some of their connections to Perla and her shop are rather small, they all interact in these ways that are poignant nonetheless.  This helps to drive home one of the books themes about how even the briefest connections we have to each other can still have some of the most profound consequences.

That said, this book is very slow.  While the sub plots are interesting, they do draw some of the narrative attention away from the the main story surrounding Perla and Rodrigo.  Indeed, while Perla and Rodrigo’s story is poignant and even tragic, it’s resolution is a letdown and doesn’t seem to really have a lasting impact on Perla or the community.  Indeed, some of the sub plots have a more satisfying resolution than Perla’s does.  

Overall, while this book is rather touching, the main plot is slow and the sub plots seem more interesting in comparison.  Some of them even get resolved in a more satisfying way than the main plot.  I would recommend this book for people who are looking to slow their reading down a bit and reflect on the important connections in their community, no matter how small they may be.

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Genuine Positivity: A Review of Fat Chance, Charlie Vega

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In most romance novels, in YA romance novels, the fat friend trope is used to build up the slimmer main character’s story. Very rarely do they get the same time and attention as their slimmer counterparts. But in this great YA romance, Crystal Maldonado creates a wonderful, if a little slow, novel with a great fat-positive messages and relationships that feel genuine.

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega follows the title character who harbors deep insecurities about her weight and body image.  It doesn’t help that her best friend is slim and athletic and that her mother constantly undercuts her by leaving weight-loss shakes for her and appears to judge her weight rather harshly.  When a catastrophic misunderstanding drives home these insecurities, Charlie despairs of ever finding love until a boy from work wins her heart.  But her best friend, Amelia, harbors a secret that could devastate everything that Charlie has been building up.

This book has a great fat-positive message.  By putting Charlie’s internal struggles front and center, Ms. Maldonando does a great deal to reveal how our culture’s messaging about beauty and slim figures, both overt and covert, can have devastating effects on a person’s self-confidence.  After reading this book, I know that I will try to be more mindful about what I say and think in this area and that is why this book is worth reading, even if you are not a big fan of YA romances.

Another great aspect of this book are the relationships Charlie has with her mother, her best friend Amelia, and her co-worker Brian.  Each one feels unique and genuine and plays a key role in the story.  Sometimes relationships in YA novels can feel superficial or only a means to an end for the plot.  But Ms. Maldonado takes time to develop all of these relationships in the novel so that the conflict at the heart of this novels feels just as devastating to us, the reader, as it does to Charlie.  Not every relationship issue is tied up in a neat bow by the end of this novel, but that feels both real and okay at the same time.  Relationships are long-term commitments and were every relationship issue to be resolved neatly by the end of this book, it would not feel as real.  If there is a sequel to this novel, it will be great to see how these relationships continue to develop.

One drawback of this book is how slow the plot moves.  Typically YA novels move at a pretty quick pace, but this book does not.  Indeed, the climatic reveal at the heart of this book doesn’t come about until about 100 pages before the end of this book.  Fortunately, the ending does not feel rushed, but it does take awhile for Ms. Maldonado to get us to the climax itself.

Overall, this is a great YA romance with wonderful fat-positive messaging that may make people think twice about what they say to friends and family who do not neatly fit society’s image of beauty.  That only makes this book worth reading, even if you are not a fan of YA, romance, or YA romance.

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Do Not Throw Away Your Shot: A Review of Furia

Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Life is not always easy on a person’s dreams, especially on a young woman’s dreams in a country where gender equality is not highly valued. In this excellent YA novel, Ms. Méndez perfectly balances drama and romance to tell the tale of a young woman in Argentina pursuing her impossible dream: to become a professional fútbol player.

Camila is a Palestinian-Argentine teen who has been forbidden from playing fútbol (soccer for American audiences) by her mother and abusive father.  But unbeknownst to them, Camila is the star fútbol player on her teen girl’s team known as Furia who has a real shot at going pro.  But things start to get complicated as her older brother’s pro fútbol career continues to thrive and Diego, a local boy who has made a reputation as El Títan in the Italian fútbol league and who has had a crush on Camila since they were kids, comes back home.  As all of these things collide, Camila has to make a choice between her love and her dream.

The first couple of chapters made me a bit concerned.  With all of these multiple narrative threads, it was difficult to figure out where exactly this book was going in the beginning.  I also feared that this book would tip over too much into typical YA romance territory with lots of melodrama.  Fortunately, like her main character, Ms. Méndez knows the story that she wants to tell and begins to thread these multiple plots together brilliantly.  This is not a sappy YA romance, nor does the ending feel like it magically happened.  There are real consequences to Camila’s choices and some of them nearly put her dreams out of reach.

Because there are multiple plot points throughout this novel, some don’t get as much play as I feel they should have.  In particular, Ms. Méndez is able to weave a bit of Argentine politics into this novel.  Argentina’s battle over women’s rights in general and abortion in particular is prevalent in the background of this book and even has a bit of a moment to shine towards the end.  But Ms. Méndez doesn’t go more than skin deep in examining these issues in this novel.  Admittedly, weaving in these kind of gender politics might have dragged the main narrative down, but I personally would not have minded if she had explored it more deeply, in the same way that Angie Thomas explored race issues in The Hate U Give.

Overall, this is a great tale of female empowerment and choosing which dreams to follow.  While it takes a few chapters for things to coalesce, when it does this novel is great.  Whether you are in to YA novels or not, I highly recommend this book to you.

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Necessary Tales: A Review of James Baldwin's Early Novels & Stories

Early Novels & Stories: Go Tell It on the Mountain / Giovanni’s Room / Another Country / Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

James Baldwin is an author whose star has been on the rise once again in recent years as America continues to grapple with race, the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans, and the hypocrisy that can be found within religious communities. In this collection of his earliest novels and short stories, Mr. Baldwin faces all of these issues head on, forcing the reader to grapple with the prejudice of their own country as well as their own.

This collection from the Library of America collects three of Mr. Baldwin’s earliest novels, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Giovanni’s Room, and Another Country.  It also includes Mr. Baldwin’s short story collection Going to Meet the Man.  Each of the novels deals some kind of hypocrisy.  At the heart of Go Tell It on the Mountain is the religious hypocrisy embodied Gabriel, who believes himself to be called to be God’s messengers but commits adultery and physically abuses his family.  Giovanni’s Room tells the story of a man who is engaged to be married to an American woman, but lives a double life in Paris with homosexual partner, Giovanni.  And finally, Another Country deals with infidelity, bisexuality, and interracial relationships.  Nearly all of these topics were incredibly taboo when first published and still have the power to shock even today.  

What I find absolutely fascinating about all of these books is that Mr. Baldwin doesn’t shy away from his subjects.  He looks all of them unflinchingly in the eye and forces the reader to do the same as well.  Everyone of these novels is a gripping read, though Another Country does seem to drag for a little too long, especially at the beginning.  The only exception would be the the short story collection Going to Meet the Man.  Like many short story collections, the stories can vary in quality.  The short story “The Man Child” was particularly head scratching.  The first two short stories “The Rockpile” and “The Outing” are interesting because they include the main characters from Go Tell It On the Mountain, but they don’t expand the themes or characters’ stories much beyond that first novel.  The best short story though is the last one, “Going to Meet the Man”, which shines a bright light on the horrors of lynching.  

These novels and short stories are not for the faint of heart, but they are necessary tales even today.  For anyone who is interested in James Baldwin’s novels, this is a great collection to read through.

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Beautifully Living Between Faith and Science: A Review of Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Contemporary literary fiction is not typically my thing as I find it hard to relate to the plot, characters, and storylines. It also doesn’t help that I have found few very satisfying endings in recent contemporary literary fiction. That said, I was absolutely floored by this book. Ms. Gyasi has written an incredible book about faith, addiction, and grief about an African immigrant family living in the United States.

Set in the present, but also flashing back to the past, this book is told from the first-person perspective of Gifty, a young Ghanaian immigrant to the United States, and her family which includes her mother, father (known as the Chin Chin Man), and her older brother Nana. In the present, Gifty is a neuroscience researcher in California studying addiction in rats, but her story frequently flashes back to her childhood growing up in Huntsville, Alabama, and the evangelical church she and her family grew up in as well as her college days where she first experiences people who do not share her childhood beliefs. If this sounds like another version of the movie “God’s Not Dead,” don’t be afraid. Ms. Gyasi handles Gifty’s struggles over faith and science in an amazing way that doesn’t go for easy answers in favor of one side or the other. As Gifty and her family try to process an unbearable grief, Ms. Gyasi imbues her characters with a great deal of depth, humanity, and compassion. Even the ending, which often gets reduced into head-scratching or saccharine ways in other contemporary literary fiction works I have read, felt perfect for this story. It’s soft, but again does not end in an easy, black-and-white kind of way.

I honestly have nothing against the writing in this book. The characters are great, the story and inner struggles are amazing, and the ending is perfectly soft. Whether you are a fan of contemporary literary fiction or not, I highly recommend this book to you.

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"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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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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Safe Passage: A Review of A Long Petal of the Sea

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In recent years, the plight of refugees has been a routine part of the news thanks to the Syrian Civil War and the unrest in Central America that has been forcing people to seek asylum in the U.S. Unfortunately, too often the refugees’ stories have been drowned out by negative characterizations by the media and the current U.S. administration. In this novel, Ms. Allende does a good job of relating the tale of a couple of refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s and, by doing so, humanize the stories of all refugees.

Similar to other historical epics, this book covers almost sixty years in the life of Victor and Roser Dalmau as they flee Spain and start life over again in Chile. Though married, Victor and Roser do not start off in love with each other. It is a marriage of convenience in order to secure passage on an exile ship for Roser and her newborn son, who is the son of Victor’s deceased brother. Their tale goes on from there through much drama, both personal and historical, that ends in the early 1990s.

The story is very good and I could imagine this being an excellent mini-series. However, unlike other historical fiction epics, Ms. Allende chose to whip through the decades very quickly. And that is why this book is a little bit of a letdown. I could easily see this book being expanded to twice or even three times its current size and winding us through so much with great detail, but it doesn’t. On top of that, two major storylines, Victor and Roser’s relationship and an event that occurs between Victor and young Chilean girl, were a little bit predictable. Had there been more meat on the bones of this story, that predictability could’ve been easily avoided. That said, the last two chapters, where Ms. Allende completes her main characters’ arcs, was very good.

For those of you who have wanted to read a expansive historical fiction novel, but have been intimidated by their size and complexity, this book would be a good introduction to the genre.

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#StayHome24in48 Readathon Live Blog

Sunday, March 22, 9:42 p.m.:

Well, it's the end of another readathon.  I finished reading four books and started two others over the course of this readathon.  I must have finished somewhere between 300 and 500 pages in total, though I did not keep a specific count.  Not all of the books were that great (I'm looking at you Ulysses), but it is always a pleasure to get something finished.  I hope to do another readathon in the near future, but we will see how things turn out.  Thanks to everyone who has read this live blog and a special thanks to the bloggers at 24in48.com for putting this on.  See you all next time!

Sunday, March 22, 8:45 p.m.:

Well, I finished A Long Walk to Water and I thought it was a very good middle grade read about the Sudanese Civil War, the plight of refugees, and the good things that they can do if given a chance to immigrate and prosper in America.  I gave it 5 out of 5 and I would recommend it, but just use some parental caution if giving it to younger readers.  Some people die in pretty awful ways in the book.  While I am going to start The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, unfortunately I won't be able to finish it during this readathon seeing as it is technically suppose to end at 9 p.m. PST (12 a.m. EST).  But, I am looking forward to ending this thing with Mr. Sherlock Holmes

Sunday, March 22, 4:57 p.m.:

And another book is finished!  I just read the last page of All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries #1 by Martha Wells.  This was a pretty good book, but, like a lot of novellas, things moved very quickly, particularly at the end, and I would've liked a lot more details.  So, 3.5 stars for this one.  An enjoyable, lite read and I might want to read more of the series in the future.  Now, on to A Long Walk to Water...

Sunday, March 22, 3:22 p.m.:

It appears the big brunch I had is affecting me a little more than I expected it to.  I started dozing off a little in the middle of my chapter.  But, I got the first chapter of Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood finished.  On now to All Systems Red...

Sunday, March 22, 2:00 p.m.:

So, this second day of the readathon did not start off as planned as I completely missed my alarm and slept in much longer than I meant to.  But, I am back up and reading.  The goal for today is to read another chapter of Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood by Matthew W. King, then completely finish reading All Systems Red by Martha Wells, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, and The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle.  Let's do this thing!

Saturday, March 21, 10:19 p.m.:

I was able to get a little more of All Systems Red completed and I am now halfway done with it.  But with dinner and Skyping with my Bible study friends, the time went by more quickly than I had anticipated.  One thing I promised myself during this readathon is that I would get a good night's sleep and that is exactly what I am going to do right now.  So, good night everyone.  I will see you sometime tomorrow for day 2.

Saturday, March 21, 5:57 p.m.:

Even though I am also taking care of laundry right now, I am still checking off the boxes of books I wanted to finish reading this weekend.  I just finished reading A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende, a good historical fiction novel about a pair of refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War and putting down roots in Chile.  It's good, but rather short in comparison to other historical fiction novels in the same genre.  Still, it might be a good one to start with for those who have wanted to jump into the genre but have been intimidated by the size of some of the best known ones.

I also discovered that All Systems Red by Martha Wells is actually a novella, not a novel like I first thought.  Though I wasn't planning on it, I think I am going to try to finish it this weekend as well.  In fact, that is what I will be picking up right now...

Saturday, March 21, 3:39 p.m.:

It's over!  I've finally finished reading this long nightmare of a book Ulysses by James Joyce.  I've been working on this book for over a month now and every page was a confusing bore.  No plot, ever changing style, etc.  This may be an interesting book for English Lit. majors, but it's a completely confusing mess to me. I give it only 1 star.  Now, on to finishing A Long Petal of the Sea...

Saturday, March 21, 2:10 p.m.:

I just finished the first chapter of All Systems Red.  Wow!  This book is going to be a much quicker read than I thought.  Still, I'm going to circle back to Ulysses and A Long Petal of the Sea and finish those books today.

Saturday, March 21, 1:45 p.m.:

It turns out that my online meeting was much shorter than I thought it was going to be.  So, I ate a nutritious lunch and I am now back on the reading clock.  Going to read my first chapter of All Systems Red by Martha Wells.  Oh, and I have to do laundry at the same time.

Saturday, March 21, 12:28 p.m.:

I just finished reading the introduction to Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood by Matthew King.  It's about the life and legacy of an influential Mongolian Buddhist monk at the beginning of the 20th century.  Phew!  It looks like this is going to be another tough read.  But now I need to eat some lunch and go to a virtual meeting.  I should be back to reading around 3 p.m., if not sooner. 

Saturday, March 21, 11:12 a.m.:

Just finished a little bit of my A Long Petal of the Sea reading.  I'm now just two chapters away from finishing this one.  But, I need to get started on two other books, Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood by Matthew W. King (for my History Book Club at Cellar Door April Read) and All Systems Red by Martha Wells (for the Life's Library Book Club).  Better get to it!

Saturday, March 21, 9:50 a.m.:

Just finished a little bit of my Ulysses reading and I am now just 34 pages away from finishing it.  I've been working on this god-awful "classic" for over a month now and I will be glad to be done with it once and for all and move on to something better.

Hour Zero:

It has been several months since I last did a readathon and live blogged it and with all the craziness going on in the world right now, I think it is time to knock another one of these out of the park.  Fortunately, the bloggers over at 24in48.com created a Social Distancing Readathon for this weekend.  And, unlike a traditional readathon, this one takes place over the course of two days.  So, instead of exhausting myself trying to get 24 straight hours of reading done, I am going to try to space it out over the next two days.  In fact, I plan on taking this one a little easier than the last one, so this will be the main place people can come to for my live blogging.  I am going to get things started with a little Ulysses by James Joyce and A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende and go from there.  Wish me luck!

God is Change Visualized: A Review of Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Parable of the Sower by Damian Duffy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Earlier this year, I read Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower and was completely fascinated by this tale of a society that it is beginning to collapse. What struck me even more was how closely it resembled our current times, despite the fact that Ms. Butler wrote this book back in the early 1990s (Check out my review of Parable of the Sower). So, when I learned that this book was being adapted into a graphic novel by the same team that had created Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, I jumped at the chance. And, like that previous adaptation, I was not disappointed.

Damian Duffy and team don't try to reinvent the wheel with this adaptation. Indeed, with the exception of a few minor changes, they stick pretty close to the original story. So, if you have already read Parable of the Sower, you already know what to expect in terms of plot. What is truly joyous to discover in this book is the artwork and how the team integrates and visualizes Ms. Butler's tale. Like their previous adaptation, the team favors a more blocky artwork with dark colors and harsh lines to represent this world falling into chaos. The liberal use of reds, oranges, and black colors works very well to show how the fires, which are both a prevalent threat to the characters and a constant theme in this book, seem to define life in this world. The team also does a good job of pointing out who is who as there are a lot of characters to keep track. Like Kindred, this is a wonderful adaptation of a modern classic.

That said, at times the color palette gets so dark that it is difficult to make out what is going on, especially as events turn violent. This may be a good thing for younger readers, but it does obscure the violence and madness that is prevalent throughout this world. Also, while the team uses text boxes to point out the many different characters, it can still be hard to track who is who as some characters tend to look similar. That said, the most important characters are distinctive enough that it is okay that some of the minor characters tend to look alike.

Whether you have read Parable of the Sower or not, this is an excellent graphic adaptation that lovers of sci-fi, graphic novels, or the works of Octavia Butler should not miss. I would give this a 4.5 out of 5 stars if Goodreads allowed it and I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the three categories I mentioned.


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God is Change: A Review of Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once again, I find myself being drawn to bleak speculative fiction and books don't get much bleaker than this. I've heard it compared to George Orwell's 1984 and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and truly this is one of the great modern classics of dystopian fiction that feels a little too prophetic for comfort.

Set in 2024 Southern California, America is right on the edge of societal collapse. Rule of law is virtually non-existent, politicians promise to restore the country's greatness, but everyone is let to fend for themselves. Living in the middle of this is Lauren Olamina, a teenage girl born with hyperempathy, the ability to feel another person's pain. As the world and her walled-off community continue to crumble, Lauren rejects the religion her father and begins to develop one of her own based on the central idea that God is change. When her walls are breached, Lauren and her followers must trek across the broken landscape of California to find a new home.

This is an incredibly bleak novel. Nothing and no one ever stay safe for long and people are hurt or killed in horrible ways. The fact that our main character can feel that pain makes it worse. But what is so striking about this book is how it eerily parallels the future. The politician promising to restore America's greatness sounds an awful lot like Pres. Trump on the stump. And the main cause of societal breakdown, climate change, is unfolding itself before our eyes in many places around the world. And the fact that Ms. Butler wrote this book back in 1993 is all the more striking.

Though this book could be read swiftly, you really should take your time. Ms. Butler writes very compellingly anther descriptions of how to navigate a post-apocalyptic landscape are incredible. 

This is truly a gripping read and one that fans of post apocalyptic novels like Cormac McCarthy's The Road should not miss.

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Quantum Heist: A Review of Randomize by Andy Weir

Randomize by Andy Weir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Andy Weir seemingly shot out of nowhere to become one of the biggest contemporary sci-fi authors with his book The Martian. With his blend of realistic science and dark humor, I fell completely in love with it and recommended it to so many people. I even loved the Ridley Scott movie adaptation that came out later. When an author becomes an overnight sensation, the next questions people ask is what will they write next and will it be just as good as his first work. While I have yet to read Mr. Weir's sophomore novel, Artemis (I'm getting to it!), after reading this short story, I do believe that Mr. Weir's narrative powers will hold up just fine over a long and promising career.

Set in a Las Vegas casino in the near future, Mr. Weir relates a tale of a high-risk, high-reward heist. The thieves though are not a bunch of hardened master criminals straight out of Ocean's Eleven, but a brilliant husband and wife team with an intimate knowledge of quantum mechanics, quantum computing, and how it can be used to rig a Keno game. In less than 30 pages, Mr. Weir both engages the reader with his heist story and does a fairly good job of explaining quantum mechanics and computing to novices like me. And, like Mr. Weir's other characters, when the chips are down the characters in this book must rely on their wits to get themselves out. Like his other works, Mr. Weir makes being smart cool and completely necessary to succeed.

One thing that is lacking from this book is Mr. Weir's signature humor. While none of the characters are particularly dour, neither are any of them particularly humorous. Of course, not every Andy Weir work has to be funny, but, especially towards the end, a little humor to break the tension would have been appreciated.

Overall, this is an excellent short story that one can knock out in about an hour. For anyone who has been hesitant to pick up an Andy Weir novel, this could be a good introduction to one of the best sci-fi authors working today.

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Pig’s Rule: A Review of Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm by George Orwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As the current political times we live in have gotten darker and darker, like many people I keep finding myself coming back to classic dystopian novels to gain insights and even inspiration. There are plenty of classics to choose from, such as Brave New World and The Handmaid's Tale, but I recall being truly frightened by George Orwell's vision of totalitarianism in 1984. So, I am a little ashamed that it has taken me so long to get to this wonderful novel about revolution and the slow slide back into tyranny that can result.

Taking place on a farm in the English countryside, operated by the cruel and incompetent drunk Mr. Jones, Orwell relates a simple tale of farm animals fed up with their oppression who, though talking about it for some time, join together to overthrow their oppressor in an unplanned moment of anger. Finding themselves free human oppression for the first time, the farm animals write down a list of rules to govern themselves and work hard to make their farm prosperous for all. But, as dissension forms between the two pigs who act as leaders, and as one of those pigs moves swiftly to make himself the sole ruler and beneficiary of the farm's wealth, the animals find themselves in a tyranny just as oppressive as the one they overthrew.

While this basic plot is pretty common in the annals of revolutionary history (for those interested in the history of revolutions, you should definitely check out the Revolutions Podcast), what makes this book an instant classic is how Orwell relates the tale so simply. Despite the book being about farm animals, the allegorical nature of this book makes it accessible to just about everyone. Heck, you could even read this book to children as it is told in such a simple and accessible form that anyone can instantly understand what Orwell was trying to do.

Reading this book also reminded me of why dystopian novels are so important in dark political times. Throughout the book the dictatorial pigs keep repeatedly telling lies or tacking on lies to the truth in order to fool the farm animals and keep themselves in power. As I was reading this book, I couldn't help but compare what the pigs were doing to what some current politicians are doing today. This also marks Animal Farm as a classic. It doesn't matter when you read it, the truths Orwell conveys about how the high ideals of a revolution can be subverted by the lies of the greedy are just as true today as they were in 1946.

Just as 1984 was such an enjoyable, if frightening, read, so too is this book. For those who have been wanting to jump into dystopian political novels, I would highly recommend this to you as your first book.

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