(continued from Part 1)
The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings (1995)
(edited by Lawrence Sutin)
"But I have never had too high a regard for what is generally called "reality." Reality, to me, is not so much something that you perceive, but something you make. You create it more rapidly than it creates you. Man is the reality God created out of the dust; God is the reality man creates continually out of his own passions, his own determination."
This collection includes (along with a helpful introduction and brief context-notes for each section by the editor) a variety of pieces by Philip K. Dick: speeches, autobiographical writings, science fiction essays, plot ideas, and excerpts from Exegesis, his collection of writings about the inexplicable spiritual events he experienced throughout his adult life.
Perhaps surprisingly to those looking for a strictly SciFi collection, the collection of writings here is pretty philosophy-heavy as a whole. PKD references a number of philosophers (Spinoza, Kant, Xenophanes) as he's parsing out his own thoughts on God and life in general throughout his essays, so it's helpful to have at least a brief background on general philosophy. He also references his own works throughout (probably most heavily The Man in the High Castle and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, though Ubik gets a good amount of space, too), so it's helpful to have read at least his key works.
So, on the whole: read this if you're interested in learning more about PKD's worldview (politically, spiritually, and otherwise) and background into his stories, or if you just want to broaden your understanding of SciFi writers of the 70's and 80's and stretch your mind a little bit by reading more about concepts of time and reality.
The Polygamist's Daughter - Anna LeBaron (2017)
"According to my father, lawbreaking and lawlessness were justified because the US government and culture were both corrupt. The disciples who followed him were God's chosen people, which meant that we could go outside the normal bounds of rules and regulations. The ends justified the means. Although at times I was worried about getting caught stealing, I kept my concerns to myself."
I've read a number of books by ex-FLDS women over the years, but this one stands out a little bit for a few reasons. Unlike most other published books that deal with the specific, larger sect of Warren Jeffs (the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church), The Polygamist's Daughter is about a different Fundamentalist Mormon offshoot sect started by the LeBaron family (the Church of the Firstborn of the Lamb of God).
Author Anna LeBaron's mother was one of the 13 wives of sect leader Ervil LeBaron. This book is an autobiography in the fullest sense, charting Anna's life and experiences from as early as she can remember to present day. Though Anna only saw her father a few times before he died in prison, his larger-than-life personality and psychological hold is a constant overshadowing presence throughout her life.
Though I found the writing style a little simplistic (though I'm not sure how much I can fault this, since much of the book is being told from a young child's perspective), the book is interesting and eye-opening in regards to cults as a whole. Anna details her long recovery from cult mentality with admirable frankness, crediting time, therapists, God, and close friends.
I'll add a footnote to say that Anna, through some of her other relatives, got involved with Fundamentalist Christian organizations (including Bill Gothard's IBLP teachings) after leaving the FLDS church. She doesn't note what particular denominations or organizations she's currently a part of, but she does make it clear that she considers her Christian faith an integral part of her life, escape, and recovery from the spiritual abuse and the plethora of other things she dealt with as part of her father's church.
Related Reads:
Under the Banner of Heaven (Krakauer)
Stolen Innocence (Wall)
Church of Lies (Jessop)
My Story (Smart)
A History of Food in 100 Recipes - William Sitwell (2012)
"Only now are we once again yearning to preserve fruit and pickle vegetables. Many today even dream of keeping a pig, yet where it once was for necessity, now it is for flavor and fun, in sharp contrast to the Victorian age in which presentation was everything and the showy trifle, however tasty, simply vulgar." p.185
I'll note up front that though this book starts off each chapter with a recipe, it's not a cookbook. Many of the recipes included (especially the early ones) aren't at all exact, and their purpose is more to illustrate certain things about the given time period and culture than to be an example of something you should make at home. And many of the recipes are chosen because they showcase certain contemporary inventions, like the gas oven, the self-serve grocery store, and TV cooking shows.
A History of Food is really quite interesting, although I felt that it had a bit of a slow start and that the author's writing style (casual British humor interspersed with some grammatical errors) was a little hard to get used to. Sitwell traces food and food culture throughout history and tells a broader story of how we got to where we are. If you're into food and/or history, this book will become your new Kryptonite.
Related Reads:
Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome (Apicuis)
The Apprentice (Pepin)
Embroideries - Marjane Satrapi (2005)
"To speak behind other's backs is the ventilator of the heart."
This book is basically an offshoot of the Persepolis graphic novels, taking place around the time that Satrapi arrived back in Iran after living in Austria as a teenager. In this short graphic novel, Satrapi's female relatives and family friends gather around and share their (and other's) stories related to love, marriage, and sex. Though it's generally lighthearted in tone, the medium is used to discuss difficult things (i.e. child marriage, FGM, husbands cheating) in an unexpected way.
This book isn't by any means a necessary addition if you've read Persepolis, but it does help add an extra layer of understanding to Satrapi's overall culture and story.
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas (2017)
"Funny how it works with white kids though. It’s dope to be black until it’s hard to be black."
This is a well-written and necessary book. It's realistic, it's uncomfortable, and Thomas uses her easy-to-read prose to dig into difficult-to-discuss issues.
I often have several qualms when reading YA books, but here the main issue I had was that some themes were spelled out a little too obviously in direct conversations/exposition.
Related Reads:
The Sun is Also a Star (Yoon)
Between the World and Me (Coates)
L. M. Montgomery Short Stories, 1897-1901
"When she came out they started off, and presently found themselves walking down a grassy, deep-rutted lane that ran through mown hay fields, green with their rich aftergrowth, and the sheets of pale ripening oats and golden-green wheat, until it lost itself in the rolling sand hills at the foot of the slope."
This is the earliest of L. M. Montgomery's short story collections (and available, like the others, for free on Kindle). Compared to the few later collections that I've read, the stories here seem slightly more simplistic and less refined. Generally, the stories hold to the "soothing, harmless" descriptors that I used for my last Montgomery review. Everything is wrapped up tidily and happily in the end, and bursts of nature-descriptions and large-eyed, pale heroines abound.
However, this particular collection surprised me by having a couple of things to take pause at, namely, a rather nasty sentence containing a few racial pejoratives ("squaws" and "half-breed" women being contrasted unfavorably with apparently more-beautiful-by-default white women), and a story ending with a romantically-portrayed suicide.
The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings (1995)
(edited by Lawrence Sutin)
"But I have never had too high a regard for what is generally called "reality." Reality, to me, is not so much something that you perceive, but something you make. You create it more rapidly than it creates you. Man is the reality God created out of the dust; God is the reality man creates continually out of his own passions, his own determination."
This collection includes (along with a helpful introduction and brief context-notes for each section by the editor) a variety of pieces by Philip K. Dick: speeches, autobiographical writings, science fiction essays, plot ideas, and excerpts from Exegesis, his collection of writings about the inexplicable spiritual events he experienced throughout his adult life.
Perhaps surprisingly to those looking for a strictly SciFi collection, the collection of writings here is pretty philosophy-heavy as a whole. PKD references a number of philosophers (Spinoza, Kant, Xenophanes) as he's parsing out his own thoughts on God and life in general throughout his essays, so it's helpful to have at least a brief background on general philosophy. He also references his own works throughout (probably most heavily The Man in the High Castle and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, though Ubik gets a good amount of space, too), so it's helpful to have read at least his key works.
So, on the whole: read this if you're interested in learning more about PKD's worldview (politically, spiritually, and otherwise) and background into his stories, or if you just want to broaden your understanding of SciFi writers of the 70's and 80's and stretch your mind a little bit by reading more about concepts of time and reality.
The Polygamist's Daughter - Anna LeBaron (2017)
"According to my father, lawbreaking and lawlessness were justified because the US government and culture were both corrupt. The disciples who followed him were God's chosen people, which meant that we could go outside the normal bounds of rules and regulations. The ends justified the means. Although at times I was worried about getting caught stealing, I kept my concerns to myself."
I've read a number of books by ex-FLDS women over the years, but this one stands out a little bit for a few reasons. Unlike most other published books that deal with the specific, larger sect of Warren Jeffs (the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church), The Polygamist's Daughter is about a different Fundamentalist Mormon offshoot sect started by the LeBaron family (the Church of the Firstborn of the Lamb of God).
Author Anna LeBaron's mother was one of the 13 wives of sect leader Ervil LeBaron. This book is an autobiography in the fullest sense, charting Anna's life and experiences from as early as she can remember to present day. Though Anna only saw her father a few times before he died in prison, his larger-than-life personality and psychological hold is a constant overshadowing presence throughout her life.
Though I found the writing style a little simplistic (though I'm not sure how much I can fault this, since much of the book is being told from a young child's perspective), the book is interesting and eye-opening in regards to cults as a whole. Anna details her long recovery from cult mentality with admirable frankness, crediting time, therapists, God, and close friends.
I'll add a footnote to say that Anna, through some of her other relatives, got involved with Fundamentalist Christian organizations (including Bill Gothard's IBLP teachings) after leaving the FLDS church. She doesn't note what particular denominations or organizations she's currently a part of, but she does make it clear that she considers her Christian faith an integral part of her life, escape, and recovery from the spiritual abuse and the plethora of other things she dealt with as part of her father's church.
Related Reads:
Under the Banner of Heaven (Krakauer)
Stolen Innocence (Wall)
Church of Lies (Jessop)
My Story (Smart)
A History of Food in 100 Recipes - William Sitwell (2012)
"Only now are we once again yearning to preserve fruit and pickle vegetables. Many today even dream of keeping a pig, yet where it once was for necessity, now it is for flavor and fun, in sharp contrast to the Victorian age in which presentation was everything and the showy trifle, however tasty, simply vulgar." p.185
I'll note up front that though this book starts off each chapter with a recipe, it's not a cookbook. Many of the recipes included (especially the early ones) aren't at all exact, and their purpose is more to illustrate certain things about the given time period and culture than to be an example of something you should make at home. And many of the recipes are chosen because they showcase certain contemporary inventions, like the gas oven, the self-serve grocery store, and TV cooking shows.
A History of Food is really quite interesting, although I felt that it had a bit of a slow start and that the author's writing style (casual British humor interspersed with some grammatical errors) was a little hard to get used to. Sitwell traces food and food culture throughout history and tells a broader story of how we got to where we are. If you're into food and/or history, this book will become your new Kryptonite.
Related Reads:
Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome (Apicuis)
The Apprentice (Pepin)
Embroideries - Marjane Satrapi (2005)
"To speak behind other's backs is the ventilator of the heart."
This book is basically an offshoot of the Persepolis graphic novels, taking place around the time that Satrapi arrived back in Iran after living in Austria as a teenager. In this short graphic novel, Satrapi's female relatives and family friends gather around and share their (and other's) stories related to love, marriage, and sex. Though it's generally lighthearted in tone, the medium is used to discuss difficult things (i.e. child marriage, FGM, husbands cheating) in an unexpected way.
This book isn't by any means a necessary addition if you've read Persepolis, but it does help add an extra layer of understanding to Satrapi's overall culture and story.
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas (2017)
"Funny how it works with white kids though. It’s dope to be black until it’s hard to be black."
This is a well-written and necessary book. It's realistic, it's uncomfortable, and Thomas uses her easy-to-read prose to dig into difficult-to-discuss issues.
I often have several qualms when reading YA books, but here the main issue I had was that some themes were spelled out a little too obviously in direct conversations/exposition.
Related Reads:
The Sun is Also a Star (Yoon)
Between the World and Me (Coates)
L. M. Montgomery Short Stories, 1897-1901
"When she came out they started off, and presently found themselves walking down a grassy, deep-rutted lane that ran through mown hay fields, green with their rich aftergrowth, and the sheets of pale ripening oats and golden-green wheat, until it lost itself in the rolling sand hills at the foot of the slope."
This is the earliest of L. M. Montgomery's short story collections (and available, like the others, for free on Kindle). Compared to the few later collections that I've read, the stories here seem slightly more simplistic and less refined. Generally, the stories hold to the "soothing, harmless" descriptors that I used for my last Montgomery review. Everything is wrapped up tidily and happily in the end, and bursts of nature-descriptions and large-eyed, pale heroines abound.
However, this particular collection surprised me by having a couple of things to take pause at, namely, a rather nasty sentence containing a few racial pejoratives ("squaws" and "half-breed" women being contrasted unfavorably with apparently more-beautiful-by-default white women), and a story ending with a romantically-portrayed suicide.
