Wreck Your Heart: A Review of All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have seen many reviews and even jokes on social media about how some of the best books can wreck a reader emotionally and yet they will still love it. Personally, while some books had certainly played with my emotions, I have never really felt emotionally wrecked by a book that I ended up loving… until this book that is. Ms. Tahir has written an absolutely amazing work of fiction that reflects on grief, generational trauma, anger, and the dreams that we all hope to fulfill, but aren’t always able to.

All My Rage centers around three Pakistani-Americans.  The first is Noor (which rhymes with lure), a young woman who is obsessed with indie rock music of the 1990s and 2000s and is hoping to escape the small fictional town of Juniper, located in California’s Mojave Desert, and go to college.  Salahudin, also known as Sal, is a young man who likes literature & poetry and has a talent for writing, but a recent tragedy in his life hangs over everything he does in this book.  While Noor and Sal have been friends since grade school, by the time the book starts they have had a recent falling out that strains their relationship.  The third character is Misbah, the mother of Sal and an auntie of Noor’s, who owns and manages the Clouds Rest Inn motel that she and her family lives at in Juniper.  Her life story is told in flashbacks throughout and her story weighs heavily on the main story of Noor and Sal.  

It’s hard to describe how good this book is without spoiling it.  Needless to say that both Noor and Sal are harboring secrets from each other.  And though they draw closer to each other as the story moves forward, their secrets collide with each other in a spectacular fashion.  Noor and Sal care deeply for each other, but their inability to share their secrets with each other will have disastrous consequences.

This book played with my emotions in a way few other books ever have.  There was one part about halfway through the book where I was actually clenching my jaw in anger over an unjust situation.  There’s also a side character whose casual and blatant racism towards Noor and Sal made me seethe with, well, rage.  And the pain and loss that Noor, Sal, and Misbah go through in their lives genuinely moved me.  Ms. Tahir’s skill at crafting an emotionally wrenching book is undeniable and is a key selling point for this book.

I wish I could go into more detail, but to do so would spoil many of the key plot points and character developments of the book.  Suffice it to say, this is one of the best books of 2022 and you owe it to yourself to read this.  I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

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The Whole Truth: A Review of The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of my favorite scenes in my favorite Indiana Jones movie, The Last Crusade, is the moment when Henry Jones, Sr., played by the legendary screen actor Sean Connery, is being slapped around by the Nazi colonel demanding to know where Jones’s Holy Grail Diary is. But when the colonel asks, “What does the diary tell you that it doesn’t tell us?”, Jones grabs the colonel’s hand before he can slap him again and says, “It tells me that goose-stepping morons life yourself should try reading books instead of burning them!” I bring that scene up in the context of this book review because, as of this writing, scores of “parent groups” across the United States are trying to force public schools and libraries to remove books about BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ topics from their shelves. This particular book has been at the center of many of these efforts ever since the first articles of this project were published in The New York Times Magazine in August 2019. Having just finished this book, I have to say that it is one of the best books about American history that I have read in a long time. The authors and editors of this book make the best case for why Black Americans’s 400+ year freedom struggle should be at the center of how we tell the story of America, and, to paraphrase Henry Jones, Sr., people must read this book instead of trying to ban it.

Building upon The New York Times Magazine articles that were first published, this book tells America’s history from the perspective of Black Americans with articles and works of poetry and fiction written by Black authors.  Starting with the first enslaved Africans being brought to the Jamestown colony in 1619, the authors document several different aspects of American life that have been affected by our country’s history of slavery and racial oppression.  In some ways, the concept and overall framework is very similar to another book that came out just a few months earlier than this, Four Hundred Souls edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain.  The key difference is that authors in this book are given an ample amount of space to discuss a particular topic, like medicine, music, or democracy, from the very beginning through the present, whereas in Four Hundred Souls authors a kept to a 5 page limit looking at a specific topic within a 5 year period in American history.  Because of that, the authors in The 1619 Project have the space to fully flesh out their topic and demonstrate how America’s past echoes strongly in our present.  Thus, the approach that this book provides a clearer picture and more impactful thesis in each chapter.

Each chapter of the book is divided into different topics with works of poetry and fiction separating each topic and providing a rough timeline of American history.  In anthology works such as these, I oftentimes find that the quality from work to work can vary wildly.  That is not so in this book.  Each chapter is top notch with excellent writing and research that both proves each author’s point and is incredibly engaging to read.  At no point did I feel bored or unconvinced.  The works of poetry and fiction that separate the chapters may appear superfluous at first glance, but in reality serve a vital function of marking out keep moments in American history, providing an artistic break between each chapter’s often thought-provoking topics, and inserting a creative outlet for what the authors and readers are feeling after each chapter.  

In short, this book is a monumental achievement in popular history writing that the editors and authors should be proud of.  I have nothing but absolute praise for this work and if there is one book on American history that you read this year, you owe it to yourself to read this one.

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Moving Towards Zion: A Review of The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2: Belonging, 1492-1900 by Simon Schama

The Story of the Jews Volume Two: Belonging: 1492-1900 by Simon Schama

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The recent surge of anti-semitism in Europe and America has been heart breaking, especially when that anti-semitism led to violence at a Pittsburgh synagogue by a white supremacist terrorist in 2018. Sadly, Jewish history is fraught with such tragedies, even before you get to the Holocaust under the Nazis. But Jewish history is far more than these senseless tragedies. In this second volume to his planned trilogy, historian Simon Schama traces the history of the Jewish people from the Renaissance to the dawn of the 20th century, laying out in dense detail their many triumphs and tragedies and their persistence in the face of unbelievable hardships.

Starting right where he left off in volume one, Mr. Schama details how the constant attacks on the Jewish people forced them to adapt and migrate multiple times.  What is interesting is that the beginning and end of this narrative are bookended by messianic movements that led Jews to try to migrate out of Europe and into Palestine.  The earliest attempts were not always successful, but the last one detailed by Mr. Schama leads readers into the beginning of the Zionist movement, which will lead to the creation of the modern state of Israel in the 20th century.  It was fascinating to see how Jewish people could be just as susceptible to messianic movements and false messiahs in the same way that Christians of this period could.  It seems looking forward to a better world and trying to proactively bring it about is not exclusive to any single religious group.

Though the descriptions of anti-semitic assaults are difficult to read, Mr. Schama does a great job of walking his readers through it and drawing a subtle line from the attempts at forced conversions and the creation of the ghettos in the 16th century, and the nationalistic anti-semitism of 19th century Germany, which would be supercharged by the Nazis later.  Yet, in the midst of these terrible trials, Mr. Schama also paints several portraits of fascinating characters in Jewish history.  People like Shabbetai Zevi, Moses Mendelssohn, Uriah Levy, and so many others are absolutely fascinating in this book.  Also, Mr. Schama’s details about the rise of Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Kabbalah Judaism are interesting too.

Another great aspect of this book is how Mr. Schama describes how the age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution promised to amicably assimilate Jews into the wider European culture, but it was a promise that was never fully realized.  As soon as France and other nations offered a hand, once Jewish groups tried to take it, they would find that it was almost always filled with empty promises.  The failure of the Enlightenment’s assimilation promises, combined with a new and virulent form of anti-semitism by the late 19th century, creates the historical backdrop for the forming of the Zionist movement.

However, this is not an easy book to get through.  This book is stuffed to the brim with details and stories that it implores you to read it slowly.  Skipping or speed-reading a single paragraph means that you will inevitably miss important details and get lost pretty quickly.  This is, without question, one of the densest history books I have ever read. In fact it is denser than his previous volume.  Do not start this book expecting to get through it quickly.  I did, and I ended up having to pause my reading or slow it down considerably just to get through it all.

Overall, this is a fascinating book, but one that is incredibly dense and begs its readers to chew on it slowly, rather than to rush through.  I look forward to reading Mr. Schama’s third volume and hope that it will be released sooner rather than later.

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Peace in a Troubled Land?: A Review of Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sectarian wars are notoriously violent and notoriously difficult to narrate due to the climate of fear that can pervade a society long after the conflict has officially ended. The Troubles, the period of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland from the lates 1960s to the late 1990s, is no exception, especially since the conflict has never been fully resolved and many of its participants are still alive. Thus, any history of this conflict is bound to be difficult to document in its entirety. This book, however, relying on interviews with both participants and victims alike, gives readers a pretty darn comprehensive history that also acts as a meditation on how fragile post-conflict societies can be without an accompanying truth and reconciliation process.

Starting in the late 1960s with civil rights protests by Northern Irish Catholics, Mr. Keefe shows how peaceful demonstrators were violently opposed by Northern Irish Protestants, which led to radicalization and sectarian violence for decades.  At the very heart of this history though is a mystery: the disappearance of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of 10, who was abducted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in December 1972.  Jean McConville’s disappearance was just one of many such incidents in this conflict that left over three thousand people dead.  It is also the story of key figures in the IRA: Gerry Adams, the IRA brigade commander turned politician; Dolours Price, one of the famous Price sisters who took part in the peaceful protests, but soon became radicalized and violent; and Brendan Hughes, one of the best known IRA street fighters of this period. Each one of these characters gets an incredible amount of attention and are presented as very nuanced characters in their own right.  

This book is divided into three parts and while Jean McConville’s disappearance takes center stage in the first and third parts, it almost completely disappears from the second part.  This is not actually a bad thing as to understand her disappearance you have to understand the history of the Troubles as well.  The mystery also serves an important function in part three as it allows the author and the reader to meditate upon the long-term consequences of a conflict that has never been fully resolved, nor has there ever been a true reconciliation process as has been seen in such societies such as post-Apartheid South Africa.  The past very much lives on in the present, so much so that former participants are still being charged and people who talk even today are at risk of being murdered.  Thus, justice has never been fully delivered in an even-handed manner.  This offers lessons for societies in the future coming out of periods of intensely violent sectarian conflict.

This was an incredible read.  The characters, history, and mystery are all written about with a level of nuance and empathy that is often lacking in many nonfiction books.  Mr. Keefe does not shy from narrating the complexities of the Troubles and is miraculously able to wrestle a comprehensive narrative into this book that is both coherent and detailed.  There are even moments of pulse-pounding action and suspense, particularly in part two.  This is not a dry history book, but one that puts you into the heart of the Troubles.  It is also not afraid to ask a fundamental question any post-conflict society must answer: what hope is there for long-lasting peace if there is little or no accompanying justice?  Both the history and this question will stick with me for a long time.

Overall, this is an outstanding book and may be one of the best nonfiction books published in awhile.  Whether you are interested in post-conflict societies in general or in the Troubles in particular, this is one book you should not fail to pick up.

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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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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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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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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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Thinking Through Changing Times: A Review of Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood

Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood: A Mongolian Monk in the Ruins of the Qing Empire by Matthew W. King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Oftentimes historians and scholars are called upon to interpret the past, but they cannot always divorce themselves from the present. In this work of intense academic rigor, Matthew King explores the life and work of Zava Damdin, a Mongolian Buddhist monk at the turn of the 20th century living through China and Inner Asia's turn from the Qing era to socialism.

I must start this review off by noting that this is an academic work, which means that Prof. King uses the specialized language of his field of study to relay this story. As such, not only can this book be rather impenetrable to the layman, but it already assumes that the reader knows something of the history of this period in Chinese and Inner Asian history. It covers over the last decades of the Qing dynasty's reign over China and it's reshaping into the short-lived Republic of China. At the same time, Russia was also transforming from Tsarism to communism and Buddhist communities, like Zava Damdin's, would be targeted and purged during and shortly after his death. But Prof. King doesn't focus too much on this. Instead, this is more of an intellectual history showing how Damdin's major works, particularly The Golden Book, took shape over the course of his life. Damdin was an incredibly learned scholar and Prof. King does a tremendous job of showing how influential his works were back then and still are today. Even the present Dalai Lama has been known to teach from Zava Damdin's works. Prof. King also shows how Zava Damdin tried to cope with Inner Asia's turn towards socialism and the persecution that was only just beginning. Like many conservatives in rapidly changing times, Zava Damdin clung to his traditional upbringing in Buddhist scholasticism, even writing some pointed criticisms of the Western worldview that were beginning to be expounded by other Buddhist scholars during his final years.

This is not a work that should be approached lightly. Nor is it one that should be approached on it's own as I found myself wishing throughout that I knew more about this time and place, or that Prof. King would give more background to this work. Though the academic language used throughout is difficult, for those of you who are interested in the changes affecting Asia at the beginning of the 20th century, this is a great work to complement your studies. The layman though might struggle with this though

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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!

Review: Joan of Arc: A History

Joan of Arc: A History by Helen Castor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Throughout history there have been figures that have risen meteorically only to come crashing to earth very quickly. In all of medieval European history, no figure rose so dramatically or fell so quickly as Joan of Arc, the teenage peasant girl who claimed to hear voices from angels and saints and rallied the battered French forces against the invading English. And despite her precipitous fall, few other figures from this time have endured in popular imagination. So, who was she, what exactly did she do, and was she the real deal or a delusional peasant? In this book, Helen Castor seeks to inject some flesh and blood into this enduring myth.

If this is your first time reading about Joan of Arc, it is important to note that this book is not a straight, cradle-to-grave biography. This book rather puts Joan in her historical context by going all the way back to the invasion of France by that equally famous figure from this period, King Henry V of England, and proceeding from there. In the first act, Ms. Castor shows how, through the English invasion and internal divisions of the French court, much of northern France fell into English hands. This is incredibly valuable context, but it can be rather complicated too. There is a great deal of medieval politics and backstabbing going on that Ms. Castor does not always do a great job of explaining. The point Ms. Castor makes by the end though is that things look incredibly bleak for the French by the time Joan arrives at court.

When Joan does arrive and the French decide to give her an army, things dramatically change. Joan lifts the siege of the critical city of Orleans and begins to push the English back with a handful of victories that look something akin to miracles. Ms. Castor does a great job of explaining how Joan, a teenage peasant girl with no military experience claiming to hear messages from God, got an audience with the Dauphin and began to push the English back, but she doesn't do a great job of explaining why the French would entrust her with an army in the first place. At the same time, to preserve the linear story she is telling about this period in history, Ms. Castor doesn't tell us anything about Joan's background until her capture and trial at the hands of the English. On top of that, one of the more frustrating parts about his book is the fact that there are no campaign or battle maps included. There is only one map that shows the status quo in France just prior to Joan's arrival at court. While it is a detailed map, I found myself having to refer to that one map over and over again and not always finding where everyone was. Even some simple black and white maps inserted into the text would've helped a great deal.

The last major aspect of Joan's story Ms. Castor deals with is her trial, execution, and then retrial decades later. The popular myth of Joan's trial is that it was a hit job designed to pass a guilty verdict upon a girl who had become such a nuisance to the English so quickly. The story Ms. Castor relates though is one where the jurists were deadly serious about Joan's potential heresy and genuinely were trying to correct her error and save her soul and her life. Though things do not end well for Joan, her retrial decades later casts aspersions on that first trial. Thus, by the end of the book, I was left with two contradictory thoughts about Joan's trial, that it was both a preordained hit job and a sincere search for the truth of her claims. Ms. Castor does not really giver her own analysis and opinions about the whole matter, leaving it up to the reader to decide for themselves.

Ultimately, this book is a great introduction to the period. By the end of it, I had a better understanding of the times Joan lived in and just how vital a role she played in turning back the English invasion, even though she only campaigned for a little over a year and would not live to see France recovered by the French. And yet, I still feel as though there were big gaps left unexplained. Ms. Castor doesn't do enough to dispel the confusion that reigned prior to Joan's arrival. And while a great deal of Joan's history is answered in this book, I am still left with a great number of questions, the biggest one being whether or not Joan was the real deal, a person who was chosen by God to deliver France from the English, or just a delusional peasant girl. Ms. Castor never even attempts to answer that question and, perhaps, there is no definitive answer to that question. Still, an attempt at answering that question would've been nice. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in reading an introduction to Joan of Arc and her times. Just don't expect all of your questions to be answered by the end of it.

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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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"I've Seen the Promised Land": A Review of At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68

At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68 by Taylor Branch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Civil Rights movement was one of the greatest movements in American history. Like other social movements of the past, a groundswell of people stood up to demand more from their government than they had ever received before. Sadly, like other social movements of the past, the Civil Rights movement would become a victim of its own success as movement leaders either burned out or became more radical after foot-dragging by the federal government. Disagreements within the leadership over tactics and the Vietnam war would also do its part to tear the movement apart. Nobly, though, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., though exhausted by the end, would stick to his principles of nonviolence right up until his tragic assassination. Taylor Branch does an amazing job showing us how the Civil Rights movement reached the pinnacle of its power and influence with the Selma March for voting rights in 1965 and then slowly come apart by the time of Dr. King's death.

In terms of structure, this book occupies a kind of middle ground between the first and second volumes in this series. The average chapter length is about 20 pages or so, with the last chapters being some of the longest. But this volume is not nearly as long in narrative length as the first volume, nor is it as short as the second. While this entire series, including this book, are a tough slog, it is not as daunting as it might seem at first glance. And like the previous two volumes, Mr. Branch gives an extraordinary amount of detail. This series truly is the definitive account of this seminal moment in American history.

This volume starts with the Selma March for voting rights and offers a definitive account of that time. And while Dr. King and his allies would achieve a great victory with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the seeds for the movements slow downfall were visible underneath the surface during the march. Dr. King's allies in SNCC and elsewhere were beginning to doubt his leadership and commitment to nonviolence. And figures like Stokely Carmichael, who would push the movement in a more aggressive direction, would first make their appearances on the national stage. Mr. Branch deals with the myriad of issues, like "Black Power" and the urban riots of the period, deftly with a great deal of nuance. He also documents the movements growing cracks thanks to Vietnam and young leaders' dissatisfaction with the slow pace of integration. All of this would weigh heavily on Dr. King, who slowly but surely becomes more exhausted and less sure of where to go from Selma. His Poor People's March reinvigorated him like previous marches, but, sadly, he would never live to see it through. Indeed, in the last chapters I felt more and more empathy for Dr. King and was deeply moved. This is a testament to Mr. Branch's writing, honed over three volumes and two decades of research.

This is a particularly long book. Casual readers should not pick up this or any of the other volumes in this series lightly. But for the hardcore historian, this is a must read series on the Civil Rights movement and 20th century U.S. history.

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"He Who Increases Knowledge Increases Sorrow": The Lesson of The Name of the Rose

I recently took one of those Buzzfeed quizzes to determine which one of America's Founding Fathers I am most like (for the curious, it was John Adams).  One of the 29 questions I was asked was what kind of a seeker I was.  There were answers for seekers of truth, seekers of the soul, etc.  But the answer I gravitated towards was a seeker of knowledge.  That should be very obvious to anyone who has been following this blog with any kind of regularity.

The pursuit of knowledge can be very rewarding.  Scientists and scholars are lauded for their ability to uncover the secrets of our world, our cosmos, and our very selves.  Our education system is premised on the idea that ignorance can be a kind of burden and that knowledge can set us free.  Wall Street traders try to get some "inside information" in order to make investments, even if that knowledge is considered by many to be unfair or illegal (see my previous blog post on the book Black Edge for more about that).  But there is also another thread to the this triumphalist view of knowledge.  In the Bible, King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes wrote, "For in much wisdom is much vexation,/ and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." (1:18, ESV)  Too much of a good thing, in this case knowledge, can be a problem in its own way.

This is where the book The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco shines brightest.  The main character, the monk William of Baskerville (by the way, Mr. Eco, a little on the nose with your allusion to Sherlock Holmes, don't you think?), is an incredibly knowledgeable fellow.  He is well read and enjoys conversing with the monks of the Italian monastery he is visiting about different esoteric aspects of philosophy and theology.  The murders that take place in this monastery and their connection to the mysterious and closed library seem to really tickle William's fancy.  Much of the action revolves first getting into the forbidden sections of the library and then finding a mysteriously forbidden book.  William and his assistant, Brother Adso, pursue these goals, knowing that it will lead to the identity of the murderer, with a passion.  In fact, at times they seem more interested in unlocking the secrets of the library and the book than they are in identifying the murderer.  

(WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!) 

But the pursuit of these secrets lead to tragedy. William and Adso do find the murderer and learn the secrets of the library and the forbidden book, but their pursuit leads to the fiery destruction of the monastery, the library and all of its priceless works.  William is obviously crushed by the destruction his quest has caused and we learn that he ultimately dies of plague in a rather brokenhearted state and that the monastery and its library are completely abandoned.

In this, I see a warning for all seekers of knowledge.  A single-minded pursuit of knowledge can be dangerous when the costs and possible consequences of that quest are not properly accounted for.  J. Robert Oppenheimer later in life regretted the research he did that led to the invention of the first atomic bombs.  Alfred Nobel was so ashamed of his invention of dynamite and the destruction it had caused in subsequent wars that he created the Nobel Prizes to promote peace, literature, and science.  The lesson we should take away from The Name of the Rose and some of our greatest scientists is this: all seekers of knowledge should count the cost of of their quests for "he who increases knowledge increases sorrow."

Thank you for reading this blog.  Tomorrow, I will be writing about Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli.  Be sure to follow my posts and share them with your friends.  Until tomorrow, happy reading!

Feel the Power of Love: The Lessons of Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables"

As long as through the workings of law and customs there exists a damnation-by-society artificially creating hell in the very midst of civilization and complicating destiny... as long as there are ignorance and poverty on earth, books of this kind may serve some purpose. - Victor Hugo

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo is rightly considered one of the great novels of the 19th century.  The reason why is because Hugo touches upon themes that are universal and transcend race, religion, politics, etc.   Indeed, there is a reason why this book is so beloved by people and spawned one the greatest Broadway musicals of all time.

Frankly, I am a little nervous to be adding my own provincial scribblings to this fine work of art, as if a mouse had anything of worth to say to a demigod.  Nevertheless, I am going to try to put into words some of the things that I have learned as I have struggled through this novel for the past 10 months(!) in the hopes that others will not be intimidated by this book's physical and thematic weight.

Here are some things I learned from reading Les Misérables:

The Non-Secular Struggle for Modernity: Lessons from Christopher De Bellaigue's "The Islamic Enlightenment"

For nearly three hundred years, the West has been militarily and economically triumphant around the world with only a few exceptions.  It has enjoyed the fruits of past empires and advanced democratic and bureaucratic practices developed over those centuries.  And when we look back at our history, we feel a certain sense of pride in our progress from intellectual and financial poverty during the Middle Ages to our current heights today.

It can be easy for the West to look at places like the Middle East and ask, "Why can they get it together?  Why can't they be more like us?  Where is Islam's Reformation?  Or the Middle East's Enlightenment?"  It's ignorant and hubristic questions like these that make books like The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith and Reason, 1798 to Modern Times by Christopher De Bellaigue so important.  They teach us that not only have places like the Middle East tried to modernize their countries, but that the West is sometimes to blame for their backwards steps.

Here are a few things I learned from reading The Islamic Enlightenment:

In the World, Not of the World: The Lessons of Frances Fitzgerald's "The Evangelicals"

The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America by Frances Fitzgerald was a very hard book to read for me and not just because there were some editorial problems I felt should have been addressed before publication.  No, I found this book hard to read because I identify myself as an evangelical Christian.  I grew up in an evangelical church and was baptized there.  Many of my best friends are evangelical Christians and they are the nicest people I have had the privilege of knowing.  However, evangelical Christianity has jumped into the messiness of worldly politics in America for one particular side of the political spectrum and now not only have many evangelical Christians become disillusioned with politics in America, but the Gospel message has been discredited in the eyes of Millennials, if the surveys cited in here are correct.  If the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is the salvation of man in a fallen world, then the church's inability to attract younger men and women is a problem.  That's why Christians must examine our history and draw some conclusions about where things went wrong.  Having read this book, here are a few lessons I will be taking away from this book: