A great source of entertainment while providing you with valuable life lessons as well as being one of my favorite pastimes, books have always captivated me. As a testament, this page is for me to share my reflections on the books I've read.
Set in the past with lessons for the future.
Constantly purporting ideologies only to tear them down, Ellison creates a story that never lets you stop thinking beyond the lines. This bildungsroman follows the journey of a black, nameless protagonist through southern America. Beyond simply learning to deal with racism, the protagonist’s tribulations help him develop his sense of identity.
“Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with your yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction, let ‘em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.”
"By pretending to agree I had indeed agreed"
This book’s focus centers around a heinous past transfixed on a moment when the main character made the wrong decision. Struggling to grapple with his past, the main character embarks on a journey of self-discovery while revisiting his war-torn homeland. Hosseini does not pull any of his punches simultaneously enthralling and horrifying you while depicting harsh truths. Following the Biden administration’s US-Taliban Agreement, this book has become extremely relevant in the political climate and can better help you understand what life is like in Afghanistan.
“A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer”
A modern rendition of the age-old story of Achilles told through the eyes of his lover, Patroclus. It’s nice to see the story everyone knows being told from a completely different perspective. Patroclus is a nobody walking in the land of myth, making his story unique. What really sets this book aside from the rest–-at least for me-–is its conclusion. Not rushed yet not dragging, in alignment with the principles of the story, I don’t think I’ve read a single book that gives you a more satisfying and complete end feeling.
Circe, by Miller, is the tale of the evil witch from her perspective. All sides have two stories, but this novel is about expanding your perspective. This book touches on patriarchy, misogyny, heroism, divinity, and more, both indirectly and directly challenging all kinds of social institutions. Although there are parts of the story that are harder to get through, for the most part, the book is exciting and concludes in an open-ended fashion leaving the reader to write their own ending.
Beneath the smooth, familiar face of things is another that waits to tear the world in two.
When unsure about one's intentions, ask yourself why someone is doing what they are doing, and when you have an answer, think about whether that makes sense. You can almost guarantee that there is more than what meets the eye if it doesn't.
“None shrank and simpered as you did, and yet the great Helios stepped on you all the faster, because you were already crouched”
Fiction with thought-provoking prose.
Killing himself shortly after publishing this novel, No Longer Human is a heavily autobiographical story about a man who does not fit in. It’s not that he’s disliked, or marginalized which alienates him, but his own fear of not meeting the requirements to be considered a human being. To completely understand everything in this book, you’d have to be at least as insane as the author; that being said, this book has a wealth of critical analysis of society and constantly challenges your ideologies about life. I love a book that makes you think, but don’t expect to walk out of reading this book with a smile.
“Living itself is the source of sin”
“What is the antonym of crime?…I feel you can tell everything about a man just from his answer to this one question”
I thought this was an interesting idea because once you dive past the threshold of what is and isn’t accepted by society and focus more on what you think within, the answer to this question can help you make sense of what drives you (and/or another). For example, most people at first glance would respond to this question with something such as “the law”, however, a more intrapersonal answer could be “selflessness” or “integrity”. Simply answering in such a sense reveals a surprising much about ones self identity.
"What is society but an individual?"
It would seem norms are the way they are because our societies deem them to be so. Osamu challenges this conception by questioning what a society really is. ’Society’ is not a tangible thing. ‘Society’ is not capable of doing. It is individuals within a society who choose to act in certain ways. It may feel to an individual that everyone is doing or acting in some way, and so ‘society’ pressures one to conform, but this ideologue does not adequately address the reality that every individual must choose to act before actually doing so. In questioning what society really is, Osamu redirects attention and—by consequence of doing so—power, to the individual.
Written in the form of a letter to his illiterate mother, On Earth, We're Briefly Gorgeous is a recollection of painful memories, pieced together to make something more. This book features some of the most stunning prose I have ever read, especially in the beginning few chapters of the book. As the stories goes on, we get more and more fractured pieces of memory, as if mimicking his fractured upbringing. Clearly crafted with intention, this book feels like an art piece.
In contrast to the beginning of this book I felt that the ending segments of this book were very hard to make sense of. I found the spike in difficulty of understanding to be quite detrimental to my overall experience. That being said, the ending pieces did not contradict the underlying messages of the book, allowing the conclusion to still feel well-developed.
"All this time I told myself we were born from war--but I was wrong, Ma. we were born from beauty"
"The cruelest walls are made of glass"
The worst boundaries are those you can see the other side of, yet all the while are entrapped by.
Norwegian wood follows the story of Toru as he struggles with his love for Naoko who is the girlfriend of his deceased best friend. With such a crazy driving force, I was left feeling underwhelmed throughout the majority of the story. But the rating for this novel is not that simple.
1) Our main character: Toru
Toru lives a life many people would consider action packed—he has sex, goes
traveling, meets new people, drinks, parties, the whole 9 yards. For a character
that happens upon so many experiences, I found him an incredibly stagnant guy. For
90% of the novel, there is 0% character development for our MC which is quite
unfortunate. The main character being unable to move forward is likely stylistically
done, but its consequences cascade into our plot.
2) The plot
There’s a bunch of interesting small events that happen throughout the novel. The
author paints vivid, memorable pictures almost every single chapter describing
beautiful and twisted moments. However, at the end of the each chapter, it feels
like we’re exactly where we started in terms of plot line. The same central issues
persist primarily because they’re outside of the MCs hands. The MCs inability to
move forward keeps these issues as the central driving force of the plot, which
means the plot goes basically nowhere for a large majority of the novel.
3) Supporting Characters
So far it sounds like I hate this novel, but like I said, it’s complicated. The
character development is stylistically stuck for our central figures, but the
supporting characters themselves go far beyond all expectations. They’re amazing.
Each supporting character is their own world of mystery and intrigue, and with each
small event we learn a new piece of the puzzle. They are unique, eccentric, oddly
relatable and yet altogether foreign. Slowly building up their motivations and
piecing together what makes them tik was by far the most enjoyable part of the novel
for me. Whereas the plot struggled to give me meaning, observing the characters and
their interactions helped me make sense of things.
It's complicated. Toru is maybe the most infuriating MC I’ve ever read, but the supporting characters bring unparalleled diversity and flavor. You just don’t see characters like them every day. The novel feels modern. It’s not afraid to dive into difficult topics and make you feel uncomfortable. It doesn't pretend the world is all roses, yet somehow leaves me finding wildfires romantic.
In conclusion: 7.5/10. Fantastic if you can get past the plot not going anywhere.
“If you’re in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark”
“‘Don’t feel sorry for yourself’, he said. ‘Only assholes do that.’”
“‘What makes us most normal,’ said Reiko, ‘is knowing that we are not normal’”
The literature of ideas.
Set in a dystopian future where firefighters burn books instead of putting out fires. Fahrenheit 451 is a classic novel which touches upon important human emotions and themes. A big part of the book has to do with ignorance, whether it be active or not, and I've found that the messages of the story are applicable to daily life. Sometimes the amount of detail the author goes into seems a tad too much, but overall the plot is very interesting, and you really feel an emotional connection with the main character.
A book is a loaded gun
A society which defines the meaning of totalitarianism. Amidst this society, 1984 is the story of an individuals revolt. Even though the writing style was intentionally bleak to mimic daily life, I found that it took some effort to keep going, at least at the beginning through the exposition. That being said, once the rising action started, the book maintained my interest till the end.
Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.
The Feed is an advanced form of intranet combined with every social media imaginable, packaged into a chip implanted in the brain. Sounds cool at first, but then come the implications. This sci-fi novel seems like something which might actually happen in our near future, and has to do a lot with consumerism, modernization, and deeper human connection. The plot of this book was very creative yet realistic, it created a future I could imagine ourselves being in. The writing style shadowed the rapid pace of the feed: information coming at you very fast, and in very digestible ways. For the most part I enjoyed reading the book, but the main character continuously pissed me off. I also had qualms with the writing; even though it is done stylistically, I found the train of thought sentencing rather annoying.
I'm not going to let them catalog me. I'm going to become invisible.
Rick is a bounty hunter whose job is to kill Androids. Seem simple? It's everything but. Unsurprisingly, this book has a lot to do with the issues of self identity and morality, asking questions like Who are androids and why are they different than humans? and What makes humans Human? Even though I read this book in 2012, I remember it left strong impression on me. That being said, I can't remember the morals of the story, or even how the book ended, both of which I can do with many books that leave a strong impression on me. Even though my approach to reading a book has become much more through as of late, I still find it hard to give a higher rating with these factors in mind.
"An android," he said, "doesn't care what happens to another android. That's one of the indications we look for."
"Then," Miss Luft said, "you must be an android."
This is a short story collection about first-generation Indian Americans. Through stories wrung with raw human emotion, Patel desiccates overgrown stereotypes, tearing apart the minority myth. Careful not to embellish life, each story gives us a small window to look at a wide variety of brown experiences, leaving us with open endings to draw our own conclusions. Written by a desi author for a desi audience, these stories finally provide us with an authentic portrait of the brown experience.
“No one ever told me that happiness was like a currency: that when it goes, it goes, and that few people are willing to give you some of theirs”
This is a series of short stories which deal with feeling exiled and wanting to feel at home. Featuring great prose filled with literary techniques, Camus’s metaphorical stories left me empathizing with the characters. Although there are a couple of stories that went over my head, for the most part, this book was really engaging. Each story felt exactly the right length, never too rushed, and I never felt like I was being flooded with information that was hard to piece together. However, even in such small pieces of text, Camus managed to make me feel for each character, and the sad endings made me want to sit there for a few additional moments to soak everything in.
A perfect society!
Almost.
Read it here.
In this short story Gregor, a salesman who supports his family wakes up one morning to find he has turned into a giant bug! This book is incredibly depressing and touches upon lots of deeper philosophical questions about morality and humanity. I was not a fan of the authors depictions of human nature, hence its lower rating. That being said, the story was a very compelling read.
Read it here.
In this book a man defends his sanity after murdering an old man for fear of his eyes. Personally, I thought that this was a super confusing read to make sense of. Although it was an interesting story the underlying ideas which drove the plot were too abstract for me to make sense of.
Read it here.
The third Madeline Miller work I've read, Galatea is a short story about a statue come to life. Historically documented as a tale of divine blessing and unbridled love, Miller reimagines the story in a darker, down-to-earth rendition. Although there were outlets for creative interpretation, such as why Galatea is never explicitly called by name, I found the story bland and hidden behind the shadow of her prior successes "Circe" and "Song of Achilles".
So far I've found that the most compelling short stories allow readers to ponder a wide variety of moral questions, which is why I thought that this story was too straightforward. Although it certainly detailed misogyny and it's implications (and did so in an intriguing manner), I would have appreciated a deeper commentary, perhaps about the underlying power systems as she had in the past, allowing for more personal connections.
Another problem I had was developing an emotional connection with Galatea’s child. Even though a deeper understanding of the child is not necessary for the plot to progress, in Miller's prior work she was able to add color to the story by creating dimensional characters. In contrast, Galatea’s child seemed very 2D which was especially prevalent considering how few characters there are. That being said, the ending of the story was very satisfying and complete, which is a trait seen time and time again in her stories.
Miranda takes an intensive look at the pre-pregnancy model formulated by the CDC in 2006. She discusses the reasons for activists' backlash against the model, why many saw it as a transgression against the reproductive justice framework, why the CDC experts framed the model as they did, the political and historical climate of the time, and the intended effects of the model. This is an excellent book to deepen your understanding of buzzword topics in the modern political climate such as abortion, women's rights, and pregnancy care. This book also does a good job explaining both sides of the pre-pregnancy model, which is the topic of contention.
After reading this book, I had the opportunity to talk directly with the author, Miranda R. Waggoner. After talking to her, I deepened my understanding of the current political climate with specific regards to women's rights and abortion. Here are some of my takeaways from our conversation:
This book argues that the division of labor regarding contraception is not equitable, and that women are socialized into using female brith control methods. For example, Littlejohn argues that thinking along the lines of condoms are the responsibility of men and birth control is the responsibility of women, has a myriad of negative consequences on women and their autonomy.
This book discusses the transformation of reproductive practices on the Crow Reservation. It takes an in depth look on pregnancy, childbirth, and how colonialism contrasted and affected the policies and practices on the reservation.
Shuster dives into the long and complicated history of trans medicine and how the modern conceptions carried through the medical field may negatively impact trans patients. Topics discussed in this book include questions about credibility of trans patients, the lack of medical knowledge with trans patients, and how the history of trans medicine effects doctors in the current day and age.
A collection of funny, ingenious, and otherwise memorable quotes and lines I've stumbled across.
“Takes ten times longer to put yourself together than it does to fall apart” - Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)
“Change is the only constant” - Heraclitus
“You will die the way you live” - Disputed author
“None shrank and simpered as you did, and yet the great Helios stepped on you all the faster, because you were already crouched” - Circe (Madeline Miller)
“But perhaps no parent can truly see their child. When we look we see only the mirror of our own faults” - Circe (Madeline Miller)
“Someone else said he was a rapevictim (which was a word in every language)” - The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (Arundhati Roy)
“In what language does rain fall over tormented cities” - Pablo Neruda
“...Need was a warehouse that could accommodate a considerable amount of cruelty” - The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (Arundhati Roy)
“‘Sad stories make good books’” - The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
“Life will not be controlled, but makes a fluent resistance to all crabbed constraint” - The School for Wives and The Learned Ladies, by Molière: Two comedies in an acclaimed translation. (Richard Wilbur)
“Why, goddamit, why did they insist upon confusing the class struggle with the ass struggle, debasing both us and them--all human motives?” - Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)
“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story” - Legend of Korra
“I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.” - A Modest Proposal (Dr. Jonathan Swift)
I love to hear about what books others have been reading. Recommend me something to read!