The History Book Club discussion

57. by C.S. Lewis
Finish date: July 31, 2017
Genre: Children's, Fantasy
Rating: A-
Review: I never really look forward to reading this one, and I'm always surprised at how enjoyable it is. C.S. Lewis is really at peak world-building here. He expands the Narnian universe to include two entirely different countries with distinct and tantalizing geographies and cultures. Unfortunately, one of them includes some tropes regarding Arabs and Muslims that are problematic at best, which keeps me from giving Horse and His Boy a higher grade.

58. by Angela D. Sims (no photo)
Finish date: Aug. 1, 2017
Genre: History, Oral history, Race
Rating: C-
Review: This book wasn't quite what I expected, but it holds some thought-provoking insights about what the survivors and witnesses of lynchings have to say in our current moment, which Sims describes as an era of "neo-lynching." I picked up this book expecting more oral history and less analysis, but it's almost entirely analysis – I suspect in part because the oldest people she interviewed were only children when lynchings finally halted as a widespread phenomenon – and on top of that, the prose is insufferably academic. A casual reader would find it very difficult to get through. I'd give it 2.5 stars if I could, but rounded up because it's doing important work that is desperately needed in today's America. I'd have gladly taken a longer book that quoted more from the witnesses themselves, including those who were interviewed by others and have since died, and couched its analysis in everyday language.

AUGUST

59. by George Orwell
Finish date: Aug. 2, 2017
Genre: Classics, Fantasy, Politics
Rating: A+
Review: Easily one of my favorite novels of all time. Orwell really captures the feel and style of children's literature, as well as crafting an essentially perfect allegory to the history and politics of Soviet Russia. As with his other anti-totalitarian fantasy novel, Orwell is concerned with how the best intentions, enacted through democratic means, can be co-opted by cunning and brutal leaders. And as with that novel, those themes are especially resonant today. Really a stunning and incredible story.

60. by Elaine Pagels
Finish date: Aug. 8, 2017
Genre: History, Theology
Rating: A-
Review: It's clear from reading this early work by Elaine Pagels why she has become such a prominent scholar of Christian history. Her ability to synthesize the often complex thoughts of a host of biblical and early church voices on topics ranging from free will to human nature to original sin to celibacy is impressive. In Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, Pagels traces the interpretation of Genesis 1-3 from the Second Temple period through Augustine's battles with the Pelagians – the time period that saw the emergence and eventual triumph of Christianity. She does it extremely well, and anyone reading this will have a much better grasp on several key points of controversy within the Christian world during its first four centuries.

If I were to make any critiques, it would be that she all but ignores the church's split between the Greek East and the Latin West, which – although still informal at the time of Augustine – was far more important in understanding why Eastern fathers like John Chrysostom differed so strongly from Augustine on issues like human nature than Pagels gives it credit for.

That nitpick aside, this book holds up well for being nearly 30 years old, and the description of the debate between Augustine and Julian of Eclanum is worth whatever price you pay for it – unless you get lucky like I did, and your library leaves it on its giveaway cart!

61. by Michael J. Sullivan
Finish date: Aug. 14, 2017
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: B
Review: This is a solid follow-up to the excellent Age of Myth. It continues to deepen the relevant characters while expanding the world to include new countries. However, the first third of the book really made me struggle to get through it before the action picked up, with a lot of exposition that I'm still not sure was totally necessary. Overall, however, Sullivan makes it easy to invest in his story, and he makes the adventure well worth it. Hopefully, we won't have to wait a year for Book 3!

62. by J.K. Rowling
Finish date: Aug. 17, 2017
Genre: Fantasy, Children's
Rating: A
Review: So many people have written so many things about the Harry Potter series, I'm not sure what more I can add to the pile. So I'll just say that I'm enjoying this, my third trip through, more than ever.

63. by Garret Keizer (no photo)
Finish date: Aug. 22, 2017
Genre: Memoir, Theology
Rating: D+
Review: Whew, this was a tough read. I'm just not a big memoir fan, and although Keizer has some penetrating, even important insights about what it means to lead a flock in a messy world, I mostly found myself dreading a return to what felt like a disjointed series of reflections that rarely connected with me.

Too bad on the last one.

64. by Katherine Arden
Finish date: Aug. 25, 2017
Genre: Fantasy, Mythology, Thriller
Rating: A-
Review: The Bear and the Nightingale is getting a ton of hype this year, and it's easy to see why. Katherine Arden has crafted a wonderful fantasy world based in historic Russian mythology, and written a mysterious, darkly compelling story that takes several twists and turns – on its way to a mostly satisfying ending.

Of particular interest to me was the interplay between the Old Myths and the rising force of the Russian Orthodox Church. Although the reader's sympathy is clearly directed toward the demons and deities of the old ways, like other reviewers I didn't read this as an indictment of Christianity so much as part of the book's broader study of how people manipulate each other to gain power – using fear, gender, devotion or marriage.

The only thing keeping me from giving this book five stars is a scene near the end that lasts too long and almost derails the story. Absent that hiccup, this is a terrific tale, and I'm looking forward to the next installment.

65. by Roald Dahl
Finish date: Aug. 24, 2017
Genre: Fantasy, Children's, Classics
Rating: D+
Review: So many people love this book, and all I can muster for it is ... meh.

This book is so meh, I fell asleep while we were listening to it in the car – twice!

This book is so meh, I promptly forgot we had finished it, and I'm only now reviewing it more than two weeks after we got home from vacation.

Why is it meh? Well, first, the BFG's mangling of English is amusing at first, but it quickly zooms past tiresome and right into actively annoying. Second, I've never had much patience for pervasive potty humor. And third, the tedious Q&A exposition of Giant Country is about as dull as possible. Throw in a few borderline-inappropriate references to various countries and ethnic groups, and you get what, in my opinion, is a worst-of collection of all of the traits that only make mercifully brief appearances in other Roald Dahl novels.

I'm giving it a D instead of an F because there were glimpses of a genuinely good, funny story in there (which are brought out much better in the far more enjoyable movie). And my kids liked it, even if I didn't.

SEPTEMBER

66. by C.S. Lewis
Finish date: Sept. 3, 2017
Genre: Fantasy, Classics, Children's
Rating: A+
Review: For my money, The Magician's Nephew is the best book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. The discovery and destruction of Charn and the creation of Narnia are evocative and memorable pieces of fantasy, balanced by poignant moments of realness in this world: the beauty and pathos of Digory's quest to save his mother and the faithful innocence of Digory and Polly's friendship.

This is the pinnacle of a series that improved from book to book in a more or less unbroken line. Perhaps Lewis felt he could do no more with it and decided to go out on top, ending the series with the next book – but I wish the brilliant mix of allegory, world-building, wisdom and affection that became increasingly apparent in the series could have continued for a few more stories.

67. by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Finish date: Sept. 5, 2017
Genre: Letter, Feminism
Rating: A+
Review: Behold the rise of the new pamphleteers – those brilliant, incisive minds who dash off a few thousand words to a friend or in a social media post, watch it spread like wildfire, then revise and publish those words into a booklet the likes of which would make proud Tom Paine and other polemicists of centuries past.

Early in the year, historian Timothy Snyder provided inspiration and encouragement to the seething majority baffled and disheartened by the election of Donald Trump. Now it's Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, riding the crest of feminism's third wave, providing 15 suggestions for how to raise a daughter in a world still too infected with sexism (as, again, evidenced by the successful campaign of Donald Trump or, more accurately, the unsuccessful one of Hillary Clinton).

Adichie's voice is lovely in its simplicity. This actually is a letter written to a friend, and its resultant warmth invites the reader as if we are the intended recipients. Which of course we are, to an extent. By the end, I was not only impressed by Adichie's clarity and persuasiveness, but by how much I liked her as a person. I want her to be around my daughters as a role model for how to be a woman in this world – kind, thoughtful, bold, brave, opinionated, strong, independent – but also just to be their friend.

As for the suggestions themselves, the book is so short that any detailed discussion would be a major spoiler. So I'll simply say that Adichie hits a lot of notes I've heard in recent years, but also makes arguments I'd not heard, or makes them in a way that is new to me. Particularly helpful are what she calls her two Feminist Tools determining how to respond to a situation: first being, "I matter equally" without condition, and the second being, "Can you reverse X and get the same results?" where "X" is a given situation involving a woman and a man or a description of a woman over and against the same description of a hypothetical man.

A final comment, because one thing I struggle with raising three girls is not to denigrate stereotypically feminine things just because they have been determined (arbitrarily by our culture) to be feminine. In a way, that propagates the inequity in which things associated with girls and women are inferior to those connected to boys and men. Adichie does not fall into that trap; she is careful to distinguish femininity from feminism, arguing a woman can be both feminine and a feminist if she chooses. And those last three words are really the point, aren't they? Regardless of the caricatures of its semantic critics, true feminism, if taken to its fullest conclusion, is simply the belief that women should be able to choose their destiny as freely as men can. If you believe women matter equally, without condition, then you are a feminist, and you need to read this book.

If you appreciated Snyder's commentary on Trump, perhaps this as well, no doubt with influences by the late Tony Judt (°2010)
by Timothy Snyder

Dimitri wrote: "If you appreciated Snyder's commentary on Trump, perhaps this as well, no doubt with influences by the late Tony Judt (°2010)
[bookcover:On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century|339171..."

Yes, I loved that book, and it's what I was referring to in my review, but couldn't say so explicitly to stay within the group's rules.

68. by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Finish date: Sept. 23, 2017
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: C-
Review: Wow, this is a truly epic retelling of the Arthurian legends – epic in length at 850 pages, epic in scale at spanning three to four generations, and epic in its ambition to provide a feminist reinterpretation of a decidedly masculine mythology. I wish I could say it was an epic success. Instead, Mists of Avalon meanders too much, treading the same ground again and again, almost as if the plot itself has gotten lost in the mists. Over and over, pagan and Christian characters debate the oneness of God/the Goddess. Over and over, female characters ponder the unfairness of life in a patriarchal society. Bradley rarely shows; instead, she tells. And tells. And tells. She tells in dialogue. She tells in internal monologue. She tells in narration.

What keeps the book moving is Bradley's writing style, both formal enough to suit an Arthurian epic, but readable and engaging enough to pull the reader through endless paragraphs of court politics. She develops deep and intriguing characters who change as the years pass. The book seems to be moving to a major resolution of the long-simmering conflict between paganism and Christianity. But the resolution happens almost despite itself. There's no real climax, at least none befitting a book of this length and scope.

And finally, there are the questions of religion and sex – issues that come up because of the author, who was an outspoken pagan while also implicated in both her husband's ongoing sexual abuse of children and eventually accused by her own daughter of molestation. Mists of Avalon simply can't avoid these facts. First, Bradley makes no effort to present a fair view of Christianity; even accepting that any work told from the perspective of Morgaine of the Fairies is not going to be pro-Christian and acknowledging that Christian practices in converting pagan tribes were often coercive if not violent, Bradley's portrayal is so lopsided as to be cartoonish. The character of Gwenwhyfar seems created almost entirely to be the whipping boy for pagan tolerance over and against Christian prudery and narrow-mindedness.

Regarding the allegations against Bradley, I feel deeply flawed humans can still create great art – even art that transcends the initial offenses of its creators to become a force for good within the world. Unfortunately, that's not the case here. In fact, Bradley's deeply troubling views of sex and consent taint this work, as she glorifies incest, promiscuity and rape as part of an idyllic faith free of Christian ignorance. Certainly, I'm not asking for a book to uphold a conservative Christian view of sex, where all of the characters improbably wait until they are married and never cheat on their spouses. But for a book to be truly feminist in orientation, it seems it should advocate at least a little for the agency of its women, rather than forcing the characters to portray their own subjugation into sexual relationships with family members and older men as somehow liberating. Most disturbing, the one unequivocally negative portrayal of a sexual conquest smacks more than a little of "she had it coming." At times, Bradley questions patriarchal notions of sexuality, pointing out (again, telling multiple times, rather than showing) that women who take younger men as partners are vilified as sluts while men who take younger women are glorified for their conquests. But overall, Bradley seems enslaved to patriarchal notions of sexuality more than rising above them.

In the end, I appreciate the effort, but it was just OK, and it could have been so much more. I enjoyed aspects of the book, and I never seriously entertained stopping it, but by the end I was seriously disappointed. Maybe even epically.

69. by Margaret Atwood
Finish date: Sept. 27, 2017
Genre: Post-apocalyptic, classic
Rating: A
Review: A beautiful and powerful post-apocalyptic novel that imagines a United States in which fundamentalist patriarchal Christianity becomes the tool totalitarianism uses to suppress the citizenry – especially women, who are fully objectified and reduced to slavery, their tasks dependent on whether they remain fertile (in which case, they become handmaids whose sole job is to carry the babies of powerful men whose wives are now barren) or not.

The writing is incredible. Atwood tells this story in a spare, almost harsh style that evokes the deprivation experienced under the regime of Gilead. The insecurities and longings of Offred (that's Of-Fred, as each handmaid essentially belongs to the man to whom she's assigned) become overwhelming as the story goes on. Atwood masterfully unveils more and more of her character's previous life as the story goes on. The non-linear storytelling pulls the reader along.

Atwood is smart to keep vague the exact mechanism by which America becomes Gilead – it's some combination of a terrorist attack on the government and a crisis of fertility – so the story can't become too dated and the reader can't pick apart various unrealistic details. That said, even in the wake of the election of an unapologetic womanizer, someone who has bragged of sexually assaulting women, amid an atmosphere of hostility toward women and women's health care, I don't see Atwood's scenario as particularly realistic – it feels much more like a product of the early 1980s (which it is!) than one of the late 2010s.

But just because something is dated doesn't mean it doesn't hold lessons – nor does it mean it isn't worth reading. The Handmaid's Tale has seen a revival in the current political moment for a reason, and it deserves it. It's a tremendous book and well worth reading, as it calls for a re-examination of how our society views women in an era in which they are both more equal than ever and yet far away from true equality.

P.S. The epilogue is terrible, though. You're better off not reading it.

70. by J.K. Rowling
Finish date: Oct. 2, 2017
Genre: Children's, fantasy
Rating: B+
Review: This is the one Harrry Potter book where I think the movie is even better than the source material. Of course, the source material is still excellent, even if the McGuffin used to make the plot all come together seems a little far-fetched. To me, this is the first novel where you can really see Rowling starting to subtly introduce elements that will become more important later in the series. Anyway, it's great. Of course.

OCTOBER

71. by Rachel Khong
Finish date: Oct. 5, 2017
Genre: Contemporary, fiction
Rating: A-
Review: I wouldn't have thought it possible, but Rachel Khong manages to turn a story about Alzheimer's disease into a witty and charming book. Her writing style is very postmodern millennial, which I happen to love, and she brings an insight into the human experience that allows her to tell a story that is charming, heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny – sometimes all on the same page. I'm really glad I said, "Hello, Book" to this one.*

*I didn't actually say that.

72. by Alice Walker
Finish date: Oct. 9, 2017
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: A+
Review: The Color Purple is a sledgehammer to the soul – a searing, brutal, gritty, violent, heart-rending, haunting, beautiful, uplifting, spiritual, transcendent, unforgettable novel. This is a modern classic that more than deserves its accolades and reputation. No doubt, it's not for everyone; you'll know whether you can stomach it by the end of the first page. But it's real, so sickeningly, wondrously real – perhaps the realest work of fiction I've ever read. What a gift to the universe this novel is, itself every bit the "color purple" of its title. I was sorry to see it end; you won't be sorry to start it.

I was sorry I started it. I can't stand narrators who can't properly speak the language.

73. by Ruy Teixeira
Finish date: Oct. 17, 2017
Genre: Political Science
Rating: B
Review: I imagine few people will agree with everything Ruy Teixeira writes in The Optimistic Leftist, but his book is an important corrective to an attitude on the left that could charitably be described as "horrified" on its best days. Teixeira's argument rests primarily on demographics: the collapse of the increasingly conservative white working class and the rise of the increasingly diverse and progressive college-educated professionals. From these numerical trends follows everything else: an increasingly liberal electorate leads to progressive political gains lead to the final defeat of austerity economics leads to increasing growth leads to greater openness toward progressive economic and social programs.

Teixeira might call himself a leftist, but he sits squarely within the much-derided "neoliberal elite" – he extols the virtues of free trade and immigration and dismisses the idea that socialism can do better than a better-regulated capitalism. As a result, he is unlikely to appease true leftists, and certainly unlikely to appeal to those on the right. I liked a lot of what he argued, but I didn't come away convinced that his optimism was fully warranted; as a demographer, he puts a lot of eggs in the demography basket, and I think he might be right, but it still comes off as too good to be true. I wish he'd addressed the real steps right-wing politicians are taking to insulate themselves from the effects of a rapidly diversifying population (voter-suppression laws, gerrymandering, unprecedented obstruction to maintain a Supreme Court majority, etc.) as well as the possibility that large segments of this ascendant coalition could simply decide not to vote in the numbers necessary to elect progressive leaders.

Finally, I struggled with his writing style. The book is filled with passive voice and dead construction ("it is," "there are") that gum up his arguments and make them unnecessarily wordy. He's also in love with using "very" as a descriptor, which is unfortunate since it means very little. (Yes, I did that on purpose.)

But, those gripes aside, I recommend this book to progressives in need of a boost during a dark time for our country. Teixeira is something of a voice in the wilderness, and his overriding argument – that voters vote for optimism, not pessimism, and liberals have a lot to be optimistic about – is well argued and well worth considering for any left-leaning politician looking to effect change in 2018 and beyond.

P.S. I really liked Teixeira's call for reshaping the so-called "welfare state" into what he calls an "opportunity state." He also calls for a "pragmatic utopianism." As a self-described pragmatic idealist, I wholeheartedly agree!

74. by Leigh Bardugo
Finish date: Oct. 19, 2017
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Superhero
Rating: A
For my money, Leigh Bardugo is one of the best authors out there. Her genre is squarely YA fantasy, and that makes it easy to compare her to her forebears – Meyer, Collins, Roth, etc. – but at this point, I think it has to be said that she is much more than "just" a YA fantasy author. She simply tells good stories well. Further, she does so in a way that seems effortless. Her prose is unassuming; it's simply active and well paced and gallops along, forcing the reader to turn page after page to keep up. Her characters are real and funny and sympathetic and complex and casually reflect the diversity of the human form without being preachy or tokenist. Unlike those other authors, Bardugo writes good stories with teen characters rather than good stories for teens.

All of this applied to her previous works, and it applies just as well to Wonder Woman: Warbringer, which does for the Wonder Woman of the printed word what Gal Gadot has done for the Wonder Woman of the silver screen – turn her into a kick-ass hero who can be a role model for girls while transcending the "woman superhero" pigeonhole into which she's often forced. This story takes Diana and Alia from Thermopylae to New York to Greece in an effort to prevent World War III, and it's very much a 21st century story, a story that reflects the world of the new millennium in all of its glorious, chaotic diversity and brooding, incipient violence.

I ripped through this book in less than two days, and although the ending wrapped up a tad too quickly and neatly for my taste, this is easily one of the best books of the year and worth your time, whether you're a young adult or not.

75. by Wilkie Collins
Finish date: Oct. 20, 2017
Genre: Classics, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Rating: A
Review: An underrated classic that amps up the gothic feel and suspense as we follow Lucy Fairlie's ill-fated slide into marriage with the malevolent Percival Blythe through the diary entries of her crush, Walter Hartright, and her half-sister, Marian Halcombe. Although I wouldn't call this a proto-feminist work by any stretch, I was pleasantly surprised how strong a character Marian is; the only drawback is that her voice recedes as the book moves into the home stretch, and as a result the story loses some of its edge. Still, Collins keeps the reader entranced as he spins a succession of mysteries that could mean life or death for Lucy, Walter and Marian. One of my favorite classics to read so far this year.

76. by Robert Louis Stevenson
Finish date: Oct. 27, 2017
Genre: Classics, Suspense, Horror
Rating: C
Review: It seems counter-intuitive to mark down a book for being too short (after all, wanting it to be longer is a good thing, right?), but in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson has the bones of a great novel, packed with the foggy menace of 19th-century London and the evergreen terror of the evils that lurk in men's souls. But just when it finds its groove, the novella rockets to an unsatisfying conclusion made all the worse by being delivered via letter. This is a four- or even five-star story with a two-star structure.

77. by C.S. Lewis
Finish date: Oct. 28, 2017
Genre: Classics, Fantasy, Children's
Rating: C+
Review: This final book of the Chronicles of Narnia, unlike the other six, is most clearly an allegory looking for a plot. The final four chapters are an utter delight; they bring tears to my eyes even now, having read the book more than five times in my life. But the first 12 chapters are a mess – the plot is rushed and unbelievable, the characters simply cutout versions of themselves, the dialog wooden and uninteresting. The overall sense is that Lewis is going through the motions to get us to what he really wants to write about – his notion of the end of the world and the meaning and nature of the afterlife.

On top of that, the older I get – and as I read these books aloud to my daughters – the more problematic I find the overt racism (the dwarfs' liberal use of the slur "Darkies!" to refer to Calormenes, for example) and subtle sexism harder to accept. Understanding that Lewis was a product of his time and culture, it's difficult to give a book five stars when I have to skip over or reword pieces of it to avoid passing along its assumptions about race and gender.

So in all, I have to say Last Battle, once my favorite of the Narnia books, is now my least favorite – while also containing some of my favorite moments in the series. I still choke up when the gang is reunited, especially when Reepicheep and Tumnus make their appearances; the end of Narnia and the exploration of the "real Narnia" remain stirring, hopeful and faith-strengthening, perhaps some of the best literature ever produced from a Christian perspective. All this world is just the cover and the title page. Let it be so!

78. by Christie Wilcox (no photo)
Finish date: Oct. 29, 2017
Genre: Science
Rating: A
Review: I didn't plan for this to be a Halloween read, but Christie Wilcox's lively, engaging study of venomous animals gave me the creeps a time or two. Wilcox is an excellent science writer, able to cogently distill complicated concepts for the lay reader while passing along her obvious love for the often unlovable snakes, spiders, wasps, ants, caterpillars, octopuses and platypuses that defend and/or feed themselves through venoms that can make flesh rot, turn insects into zombies or kill a human in minutes.

Most important, however, Wilcox details how scientists have begun learning how venom can be turned into medicine, potentially to fight cancer, AIDS and other currently incurable diseases. She makes a compelling argument that even the unloveliest of animals stores within its DNA millions of years of data that we mere humans could not learn on our own, and that the extent to which we allow our fear to drive these animals to extinction is the extent to which we impoverish our own ability to learn and benefit from their remarkable adaptations.

Paul you are next in the queue for set up after Gyoza

Paul (from Abilene, Texas) your new thread for 2018 is now set up and ready to go - here is the link:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...