Got Mono/Updated my Blog

After four years without an update, I have plenty of books I need to add to my have-read list! And while I’m in bed recovering from mono... why not just dump an updated list onto the blog?*

1. Closing Time by Joseph Heller
• ⭐️⭐️/5 Such a letdown after Catch-22.
2. Flash Boys by Michael Lewis
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Really enjoyed this.
3. If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino
• ⭐️⭐️/5 I am not sufficiently postmodern to revel in this.
4. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Does anyone ever get sick of Erik Larson making history not only come to life — but come to life entertainingly?
5. The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 I had heard this was going to be surprisingly applicable to everyday life, but I was still surprised when I started recommending that everyone at work read it to understand why we make mistakes and how we can make them less troublesome. I work in the healthcare finance field, where minimizing the negative effects of human error is so key in order to make sure that patients get the best care constantly, which makes this especially interesting.
6. Educated by Tara Westover
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 I recommended this to every thoughtful person I know.
7. Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Excellent, but I should have been more engaged with it. Will need to re-read it when I have more brainpower.
8. One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Surprisingly good for YA lit. I was actually engaged the whole time despite feeling like it could have put a bit more effort into not being “The Breakfast Club with a murder.”
9. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Walked Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Became a surprising favorite of mine. I would definitely reread this.
10. So Close to Being the Sh*t Y’All Don’t Even Know by Retta
• ⭐️/5 In my never-ending quest for the perfect celebrity autobiography, Retta did not treat me.
11. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Frederik Backman
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 I loved this. I read it voraciously.
12. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 It no longer makes me wonder why I’ve had at least one person recommend this book to me basically every year since I was 17. I highlighted a LOT in here.
13. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Eh. Overrated.
14. Queens of the Conquest: England’s Medieval Queens Book One by Alison Weir
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Pretty good.
15. Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 My spiritual big sis comes through for me. This will never leave my most accessible bookshelf. Thank the Lord for St. Therese’s impression in the Catholic  compendium!
16. Britt-Marie was Here by Frederik Backman
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 So different from My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, but so excellent in its own way. I was surprised this became a poorly-reviewed movie, because I could see it being an excellent movie if properly managed.
17. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Perfection. I was so excited when I finished this, I emailed my most ardent LOTR friend at about 1am so that he would know as soon as possible how eager I was so talk to him about it. For reference, he’s a big enough fan that his wife has allowed him to hang a Middle Earth map in their living room.
18. The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Perfection. I had tried reading this before and didn’t get through it, and definitely still think that my mistake was not reading The Hobbit first. 

*Excludes books read for school

The Aviator's Wife

My Rating: ★★

Method of Reading: Harcover novel, 448 pages
Dates of Reading: January 1, 2016-January 3, 2016
Author: Melanie Benjamin
Publication Year: 2013
Recommended to: Personne.
Quotes: 
Movie: No.

Wikipedia Link: N/A
Link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Aviators-Wife-A-Novel/dp/0345528689

My View: I have some choice words for this book. Lucky Lindy is unexceptionally repulsive. Self-centered, demanding, anti-Semitic, conceited, controlling, gloating, dictatorial, distant, unimaginative, cold, and flippant, he comes off as a one-trick pony who kicks the stableboy offstage. The book was belittling to the real Anne Lindbergh, probably unfair to the real Charles Lindbergh, and tasteless to write during the lifetimes of their children. It simply feels like a quasi-researched fantasy of Benjamin's, heavily influenced by reading too much Twilight and possibly 50 Shades of Gray, and poorly edited (so. much. repetition.). A cheap shot.

Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliography:
Benjamin, Melanie. The Aviator's Wife. Bantam, 2013. Print.

The Girl on the Train

My Rating: ★★★

Method of Reading: Hardcover novel, 336 pages
Dates of Reading: December 29, 2015-December 31, 2015
Author: Paula Hawkins
Publication Year: 2008
Recommended to: Oh. Brave people who already like thrillers.
Quotes: 
Movie: Yes'm. Maybe it'll become Leo's Oscar-winner.

Wikipedia Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_on_the_Train_(novel)
Link: http://paulahawkinsbooks.com/the-girl-on-the-train-by-paula-hawkins/

My View: This is the first "psychological thriller" I think I've ever read, and I didn't really get hooked. Nevertheless, Paula Hawkins is a really good writer.

Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliography:
Hawkins, Paula. The Girl on the Train. Thorndike Press. 2015. Print.

Silver Linings Playbook

My Rating: ★★★★★

Method of Reading: Personally owned paperback novel, 289 pages
Dates of Reading: December 24, 2015-December 26, 2015
Author: Matthew Quick
Publication Year: 2008
Recommended to: People who like Catcher in the Rye, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, The Great Gatsby, or The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Quotes: 
Movie: Yep, but my understanding is that it was considerably modified from the book. Also, I do not see Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in these roles. Whatever.

Wikipedia Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silver_Linings_Playbook
Link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Silver-Linings-Playbook-Novel/dp/0374533571

My View: Great. I had never actually known what this book was about, so when I picked up my gifted copy at the start of Christmas break, I was really (pleasantly) surprised. Quick knocked it out of the park. Convincingly narrated, well-paced, and lovable. An interesting treatment of mental illness, sports mania, and relationships. One thing I truly appreciated was the livability of the characters--literally. They could live. Nobody was a "bad guy," but nobody felt totally reliable either. I've recommended it to readers who enjoyed Catcher in the Rye, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, The Great Gatsby, or The Perks of Being a Wallflower because of how excellently this unreliable narrator is portrayed. Really excellent debut novel.

Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliography:
Quick, Matthew. Silver Linings Playbook. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. Print.

Year in Review

Happy 2016!
During 2015 I had the great fortune of reading some unusually awesome books in class, either in their entirety or in small snippets selected by professors. A partial listing is included here.

GK Chesterton and Catholicism (A theology course about the expansive Christianity of the prince of puns; the following works are all his, except where noted)

• The Napoleon of Notting Hill
• The Ball and the Cross
• Tremendous Trifles
• The Blatchford Controversies
• Heretics
• The Well and the Shallows (incl. "My Six Conversions," "The Return to Religion," "The Ascetic at Large," "The Last Turn," "Babies and Distributism," "Church and Agoraphobia," "Reflections on a Rotten Apple," "A Century of Emancipation," "Sex and Property")
• What's Wrong with the World (incl. "Family and the Common Man," "The Superstition of Divorce," and "Eugenics and Other Evils")
• Orthodoxy
• Everlasting Man
• St. Thomas Aquinas
• St. Francis of Assisi
• Where All Roads Lead
• The Thing: Why I am a Catholic
• The Size of Chesterton's Catholicism by David W. Fagerberg

Christian Theological Traditions I (Another theo course, this one focusing on pre-Reformation Christian writings)

• Early Christian Writings, ed. A. Louth
• St. Anselm of Canterbury's Prayers and Meditations
• On the Incarnation of the Word by St. Athanasius of Alexandria
• St. Augustine's Confessions
• St. Benedict's Rule
• St. Bonaventure's Journey of the Mind to God
• On the Sacraments by Cyril of Jerusalem
• Sayings of the Early Christian Monks, composed of sayings of the Desert Fathers
• St. Gregory of Nazianzus's On God and Christ
• St. Irenaeus of Lyons's On the Apostolic Preaching
• Select Writings of Origen, ed. R. Greer
• Paul Evdokimov's Ages of the Spiritual Life

This Side of Paradise

My Rating: ★★★★★

Method of Reading: Personally owned paperback novel, 261 pages
Dates of Reading: August 1, 2015-December 22, 2015
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Publication Year: 1920
Recommended to: Readers who enjoy or are interested in the 20s, anyone who liked Catcher in the Rye.
Quotes: 
   "[Tom declared,] 'I want to go where people aren't barred because of the color of their neckties and the roll of their coats.
   'You can't, Tom,' argued Amory, as they rolled along through the scattering night; 'wherever you go now you'll always unconsciously apply these standards of "having it" or "lacking it"'" (77).
   "She made her goodness such an asset" (129).
   "Oh, Lord, what a pleasure it used to be to dream I might be a really great dictator or writer or religious or political leader—and now eve a Leonardo da Vinci or Lorenzo de Medici couldn't be a real old-fashioned bolt in the world. Life is too huge and complex. The world is so overgrown that it can't lift its own fingers, and I was planning to be such an important finger—" (199)
   "'But I have to have a soul,' he objected. 'I can't be rational—and I won't be molecular'" (213).
   "... sacrifice was no purchase of freedom" (230).
   "I soon found it made me morbid to think too much about myself" (243).
   "However the brans and abilities of men differ, their stomachs are essentially the same" (255).
   "I know myself ... but that is all" (261).
Movie: Yes, and apparently there's another one coming!

Wikipedia Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Side_of_Paradise
Link: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/805

My View: Excellent. I'd say it's a little more accessible than Gatsby (even if there's slightly less glitter and gold), especially for school-aged readers. The format is really interesting, making me surprised this isn't considered Fitzgerald's chef d'œvre.

Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliography:
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. This Side of Paradise. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2005. Print.

The Great Divorce

My Rating: ★★★★★

Method of Reading: Personally owned paperback novel, 146 pages
Dates of Reading: December 23, 2015-December 24, 2015
Author: C.S. Lewis
Publication Year: 1945
Recommended to: Any C.S. Lewis fan
Quotes: 
   "Ask for the Bleeding Charity" (28).
   "...the Blessed will say, 'We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,' and the Lost, 'We were always in Hell.' And both will speak truly" (69).
   "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done'" (75).
Movie: Looks like there's one in the works which has been repeatedly delayed over the past two years.

Wikipedia Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Divorce
Link: http://www.cslewis.org/resources/studyguides/Study%20Guide%20-%20The%20Great%20Divorce.pdf

My View: Incredible. Loved it, especially interesting in light of the course I'll be taking on eschatology this semester and my most recent theology course on the works of C.S. Lewis's inspiration, G.K. Chesterton. And it's a tiny little thing you can read in a day or two!

Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliography:
Lewis, C.S. The Great Divorce. New York: Macmillan, 1946. Print.