More books...

Initially, I started keeping reading logs to get T.R. to do his.  We bet dinner on who could read the most pages over the log period (I had to read nx the pages he did to keep it fair).  Worst case, I had to make dinner anyway and best case I got fondue.  I no longer keep track of the pages, but the habit of tracking the books is now ingrained.  I have vague plans to make a tally quilt someday with different colored “books” for each category.

However, writing up what I read only three times a year means that I often forget all the really cool things I wanted to say about any particular book.  So I have decided to write book reports more often about fewer books.

So far, since T. got out of school (beginning of summer, my definition), I have read 14 books.  Four of those were for my fitness blog and I won’t go over them again.

Perhaps the most important book I have read recently is Hannah Arendt’s book The Origins of Totalitarianism.  We live in a scary time and the book offers some interesting perspective on how things can get worse.  It’s not light reading, but it is definitely worth it to shed light on such topics as how racism plays into totalitarian agendas, for example.

I borrowed Beauty in Arabic Culture by Doris Behrens-Abouseif from a friend back when I was working on T.R.’s Christmas book last year, but didn’t read it until now.  I have a very Dead White Male sort of education and I’m slowly working on broadening that.  What I was particularly struck by in the book was the interplay between the natural and the artificial in art—a room with trees made out of jewels reflected in a pool of mercury, the nearly literal gilding of the lily as a guiding principle.  I would have liked more illustrations and more explanation of the illustrations presented, but the Internet exists to show me pictures when necessary.

I already wrote a little bit about Faith in a Seed by Henry David Thoreau, or at least the specific copy I have.  What I value about Thoreau’s writing is the combination of close observation with a sense of humor.  He likes what he sees and responds to the beauty of the world with joy.  The book is also interesting because it depicts science in action:  data collection, hypothesizing, testing, refining, all within a deeply humane framework.

So much for nonfiction.

I was gifted a bunch of older kid books by a friend who is moving.  I have many more to look forward to reading.  However, the first three I tackled were early Carolyn Keenes.  One was even pre-Nancy Drew, By the Light of the Study Lamp.  The other two were Nancy’s Mysterious Letter, and The Quest of the Missing Map.  I enjoyed them, but I also am happy that times have changed.  As empowered as Nancy is, pains are taken to make sure that she works within the bounds of the patriarchy, never doing anything that might compromise her attractiveness or ability to win queen of the dance.  Racism is casual and stereotypes abound.  The plots are just as ridiculous as I remembered.  I would classify them as entertaining cultural artifacts with some questionable bits.  The fourth one I read was Ouida’s A Dog of Flanders.  I picked it to read on a day when I was in a bad mood, figuring that a story about a dog was just the thing to cheer me up.  Plot spoiler:  the dog dies.  So does the child who loves him and his aged grandfather.  Many points for pathos, but not what I was looking for at the moment.  There were other stories in the book, some of them considerably more cheerful, but I had a hard time getting past that initial betrayal.  (T. pointed out that many books with dogs in them end badly, such as Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows.  Apparently, I want the fairy tale version in which all dogs live happily ever after.)

Syd recommended S.A. Chakraborty’s book The City of Brass.  It’s YA speculative fiction set in an alternative version of the middle east in which there are djins, marids, peris, and demons.  The world building is wonderful and it is nice to have the human culture that interacts with the magical one from a different part of the world than I am used to reading about.  There had better be a second book soon, however, because the ending was not an ending.

Rick Riordan can have my money for any book he writes.  The Burning Maze is the latest in the Trials of Apollo series.  Some of the books have stronger plots than others, but the characters are always strong and I laugh out loud often.

So much for kid/YA.

Finally, I read The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon.  It’s speculative fiction set in a near future in which our smart devices kill us.  It’s a little more complicated than that, but I don’t want to spoil it.  The writing is lovely, the characters are interesting, and it has references to Alice in Wonderland.  What else is needed?

That brings me up to date.  I will post more when I read more, probably even fewer books at a time.