Though it was a short month and I've been working more hours, I packed in a good variety of books in February, including Marjane Satrapi's three graphic novels. I also picked up a couple of things by Ursula Le Guin that I hadn't read before, brought to the forefront of my list due to her death on January 22.
Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories - Agatha Christie
"Hercule Poirot sat on the white sand and looked out across the sparkling blue water. He was carefully dressed in a dandified fashion in white flannels and a large panama hat protected his head. He belonged to the old-fashioned generation which believed in covering itself carefully from the sun."
This collection includes over 50 short stories featuring that famous detective, M. Poirot. I've seen the entire TV series starring David Suchet (highly recommended), so I was already familiar with most of the stories here. But they were still quite enjoyable and occasionally surprising reads. With its easily-digestible stories (of varying lengths), this is an ideal collection for both fans and newbies of mystery stories to peruse on rainy afternoons.
Related Reads:
Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books
The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes (Doyle)
Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith - Benjamin L. Corey (2017)
"So we have a choice: we can stay in these systems of false binaries and remain loyal to Christian labels, settle into groupthink, and submit to the pressures of tribalism. Or we can step out into a world that is far more difficult to define with word or categories."
On the whole, I felt that this book was a bit simplistic and repetitive, and I was a little disappointed that the author didn't seem to use many sources to back up his thoughts. This was kind of a shame, because I didn't necessarily disagree with what Corey was saying - it just felt like this was more of a series of opinion posts at times rather than a carefully researched book. I also think that the lack of sources and the emphasis on feelings would be a hard thing to get over for some of Corey's intended audience.
I'd still say that the book comes across as a heartfelt, personal journey that I (and probably lot of people who also come from Fundamentalist/Evangelical Christian backgrounds) could relate to and reflect on. The author's honesty about his struggles (particularly a point where his therapist had him do an exercise where he addressed God as if addressing someone who he'd had a toxic relationship with) was refreshing.
Related Reads:
In the Grip of Grace (Lucado)
Jesus Feminist (Bessey)
This is a slow-building, political, introspective story. The Left Hand of Darkness is perhaps best known for its ahead-of-its time take on gender; the alien people on the planet Winter are ambisexual, and the human main character struggles to see them as such (falling back on the pronoun "he" and becoming confused or even disgusted at signs of "femininity"). Much of the book is a slow build towards his - the Envoy's - growing understanding of the people and world around him.
Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories - Agatha Christie
"Hercule Poirot sat on the white sand and looked out across the sparkling blue water. He was carefully dressed in a dandified fashion in white flannels and a large panama hat protected his head. He belonged to the old-fashioned generation which believed in covering itself carefully from the sun."
This collection includes over 50 short stories featuring that famous detective, M. Poirot. I've seen the entire TV series starring David Suchet (highly recommended), so I was already familiar with most of the stories here. But they were still quite enjoyable and occasionally surprising reads. With its easily-digestible stories (of varying lengths), this is an ideal collection for both fans and newbies of mystery stories to peruse on rainy afternoons.
Related Reads:
Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books
The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes (Doyle)
Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith - Benjamin L. Corey (2017)
"So we have a choice: we can stay in these systems of false binaries and remain loyal to Christian labels, settle into groupthink, and submit to the pressures of tribalism. Or we can step out into a world that is far more difficult to define with word or categories."
On the whole, I felt that this book was a bit simplistic and repetitive, and I was a little disappointed that the author didn't seem to use many sources to back up his thoughts. This was kind of a shame, because I didn't necessarily disagree with what Corey was saying - it just felt like this was more of a series of opinion posts at times rather than a carefully researched book. I also think that the lack of sources and the emphasis on feelings would be a hard thing to get over for some of Corey's intended audience.
I'd still say that the book comes across as a heartfelt, personal journey that I (and probably lot of people who also come from Fundamentalist/Evangelical Christian backgrounds) could relate to and reflect on. The author's honesty about his struggles (particularly a point where his therapist had him do an exercise where he addressed God as if addressing someone who he'd had a toxic relationship with) was refreshing.
Related Reads:
In the Grip of Grace (Lucado)
Jesus Feminist (Bessey)
Persepolis and Persepolis 2 - Marjane Satrapi (2003 & 2004)
''That night I stayed a very long time in the bath. I wanted to know what it felt like to be in a cell filled with water.
My hands were wrinkled when I came out, like Grandpa's."
Persopolis is a graphic novel about the author's childhood in Iran. I was going to note that it's not for young kids, but it simultaneously hit me that the author lived through the events portrayed (including her exposures to war, relatives being tortured, and extremist ideologies) as a young child.
The followup novel picks up immediately where the first left off and details Satrapi's teen years in Austria as well as her return to Iran and the difficult adjustments that she experiences. Like the first book, the tone is generally that of discussing her life and opinions with a friend.
Both novels end fairly abruptly, but I can't really fault that as that'ss true-to-life, too. The first book is more history-heavy, but both books are compelling and poignant and really worth the read - they won't take long to finish, but will sit in your mind for a while.
Related Reads:
Reading Lolita in Tehran (Nafisi)
Day of Honey (Ciezadlo)
''That night I stayed a very long time in the bath. I wanted to know what it felt like to be in a cell filled with water.
My hands were wrinkled when I came out, like Grandpa's."
Persopolis is a graphic novel about the author's childhood in Iran. I was going to note that it's not for young kids, but it simultaneously hit me that the author lived through the events portrayed (including her exposures to war, relatives being tortured, and extremist ideologies) as a young child.
The followup novel picks up immediately where the first left off and details Satrapi's teen years in Austria as well as her return to Iran and the difficult adjustments that she experiences. Like the first book, the tone is generally that of discussing her life and opinions with a friend.
Both novels end fairly abruptly, but I can't really fault that as that'ss true-to-life, too. The first book is more history-heavy, but both books are compelling and poignant and really worth the read - they won't take long to finish, but will sit in your mind for a while.
Related Reads:
Reading Lolita in Tehran (Nafisi)
Day of Honey (Ciezadlo)
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
(my version: 1976 with author introduction)
"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next."
(my version: 1976 with author introduction)
"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next."
This is a slow-building, political, introspective story. The Left Hand of Darkness is perhaps best known for its ahead-of-its time take on gender; the alien people on the planet Winter are ambisexual, and the human main character struggles to see them as such (falling back on the pronoun "he" and becoming confused or even disgusted at signs of "femininity"). Much of the book is a slow build towards his - the Envoy's - growing understanding of the people and world around him.
Le Guin is known for really fleshing out worlds and societies in her novels, and this book is no exception. The focus here is much more on descriptors, world-building, and defining terms; there are even interspersing chapters that contain Winter's oral traditions and history. Thus, to me the book had the feeling of a fantasy novel at times, though as a whole it's fairly firmly in the science fiction category.
Quiet, powerful, reflective, and slow-paced, this book won't be for everyone, but it's rewarding for those who appreciate the genre and tone. Once in a while, I check out a book from the library that I wish I'd purchased so I could spend more time in introspection with it. This is one of those books.
Related Reads:
Ancillary Justice Trilogy (Lecke)
The Sparrow (Russell)
The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin (1971)
"A machine is more blameless, more sinless even than any animal. It has no intentions whatsoever but our own."
This is a contemporary novel that deals primarily with the concept of time. It felt very similar to the Philip K. Dick novels that I've read, particularly in its way of pushing the boundaries on certain concepts and in the way the imperfect characters are portrayed. At the same time, it's not a difficult read.
I recommend reading this if you're a fan of Philip K. Dick novels (or reading PKD novels if you like this book). As a side note, I found it particularly interesting parsing out the similarities and differences between the authors as to how they dealt with certain subjects, as Le Guin was an avowed atheist and Dick (who had deeply personal spiritual experiences throughout his life - more on this in Part 2) considered himself a theist.
I recommend reading this if you're a fan of Philip K. Dick novels (or reading PKD novels if you like this book). As a side note, I found it particularly interesting parsing out the similarities and differences between the authors as to how they dealt with certain subjects, as Le Guin was an avowed atheist and Dick (who had deeply personal spiritual experiences throughout his life - more on this in Part 2) considered himself a theist.
Related Reads:
Martian Time-slip (Dick)
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