House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Good writing, but what a horrible joyless book. Do I need to be hit over the head to be empathetic? No. As someone that is already fairly empathetic, reading this was stressful and awful for every minute of reading, and like having your insides ripped out in the least enlightening way possible. I can't believe I even finished it, and I definitely shouldn't have. Life is too short to read this.

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Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My first grade teacher, Mrs. Doscher, read this out loud to us in class, and I think it was the first time anyone read out loud to me as a kid. In my memory, it took us a few months to read it, chapter by slow chapter. I don't remember crying in class, but this book is still one of the saddest books for me.

As an adult though, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Why would the people in the book assume a pig was writing on a spiderweb? Wouldn't they rightfully assume it was the spider doing it?

Update from 2020: I'm rereading this to my kids and I realized I'm such a dummy! The farmer characters in the book thought God wrote in the Spiderweb! It totally took me 35 to get that. Maybe because I never really thought about the literature of miracles when I was younger. I have been humbled by my own stupidity. Haha.

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Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An impressively profane and funny memoir about life in restaurant kitchens. You can tell from his language and allusions that he's been hyper-educated (not just in food) though tries to put forward a bad-boy chef persona. I read this after Bourdain died and so there were some passages I found chilling and nearly prescient, but I can't make sense of his suicide at all.

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Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman

Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart D. Ehrman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Some of the reviewers below don't like what historian Bart D. Ehrman has to say, so they simply misconstrue what he actually wrote in this book. The part of the book's description that best summarizes this book is, "Jesus can be best understood as an apocalyptic prophet--a man convinced that the world would end dramatically within the lifetime of his apostles and that a new kingdom would be created on earth." Ehrman does not diminish the importance of Jesus in any way. In other books he wrote, he explained that he has personally gone from being a literal interpreter of the Bible to an atheist and maybe that's what's drawing the ire of some reviewers. My (non-literalist) Christian beliefs are not in any way threatened by a careful historical analysis of what Jesus probably actually said based on multiple Biblical references and the historical context of the time. I think this is very well-done and gives me a lot to think about.

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Superstition Freeway by Miles Waggener

Superstition Freeway by Miles Waggener
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Forlornness as breathtaking desert scenery.

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Dear Girls by Ali Wong

Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is actually hilarious. She's no-holds-barred and often veers in grossness, but whatever, she is so funny. Also, she is the only other person I've ever heard of who had the exact same problem with the epidural on her first birth as me. (We both had no problems the second time so clearly it was the anesthesiologist.)

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American Sniper by Chris Kyle

American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by Chris Kyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am starting with my bias because it deeply colors my entire reading of the book and therefore my review. My bias is first of all that I am one of those people who strongly supported our military personnel but thought it was fairly obvious that we should not be at war in Iraq as they had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11 and there was also clearly no evidence that they had weapons of mass destruction. I was disturbed they wouldn't allow proper inspections of course, but war is a really big commitment and precisely because I support our military people, I thought we shouldn't endanger them unless we had a really good reason. My second bias is that I am one of those super annoying good works Christians, who doesn't believe that faith alone is all it takes to be in God's (metaphorical) good graces. I know, we are the most inconvenient and annoying, but with that out of the way, I turn to the book.

I thought seeing Chris Kyle's perspective was really enlightening because his thinking is so unlike my own and so unlike that of most authors I read. Expanding the way I view the world is a huge part of the reason I read books, so 5 stars for that. I thought his point about some of the rules of war endangering servicemen and women was especially salient, and I would hope that all the military heads read his book.

My issue is that Kyle refused to engage with any kind of critical thinking or philosophy in this book and that is really important when the book is fundamentally about having the most kills in a war with a poor justification. While he claims some general philosophical protection from Christianity, and some from the demonstrated sexism and cowardliness of his opponents, I was left cold. His philosophy is not actually the philosophy of Western Judeo-Christians, but the philosophy of Roman and Greek warriors to which Judeo-Christianity sprung up in direct opposition. He is a hero very much like Achilles, celebrated for his physical might in battle. WWJD-people need not apply to this story. I appreciate the risks he took for the love of our country. I love our country: our values as a democracy, the people who live in our country, and the troops who protect it. And I appreciate his honesty throughout. And I'm sorry he was killed after his return from the war while engaged in helping a fellow veteran. But giving his gun to a veteran he knew was struggling mentally is a pretty good indication of the type of critical-thinking lack throughout this book.

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Jesus, Interrupted by Bart D. Ehrman

Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible & Why We Don't Know About Them by Bart D. Ehrman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is very good and thorough and I would have highly valued a book like this in high school. But it can be a little tedious for those of us who long ago surmised the central tenant of this book which is that the Bible cannot be literally accurate in its depiction of events. There is no end of proof to that thesis, many of which come from other fields.

But personally, I think Ehrman undersold the value of the Judeo-Christian faiths separate from the literal truth of the Bible collection and that might be misleading to some less educated readers. Ehrman came to his religious conclusion via the religious extremist route, then learning real scholarship, slowly liberalizing, and finally rejecting his religious beliefs. But if you were never so wedded to the literalism in the first place you might find more longterm value in the religious metaphors. Sometimes metaphors are more real than reality. That's what I've arrived at via the study of literature, philosophy, science, and even politics. If you've dedicated so much of your life to just one field, you're likely highly educated and have been exposed to a lot of knowledge in other fields, but maybe you haven't had the opportunity to afford them equal weight or consideration.

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The Soul Thief by Charles Baxter

The Soul Thief by Charles Baxter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my first Charles Baxter so I wasn't comparing it like other reviewers to his other works. I thought it was pretty good, though I thought the ending was overdone. Nothing really sticks with me though and the characters feel a little washed out though that might be by design given the ending.

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Merhorses and Bubbles by Asia Citro

Merhorses and Bubbles  (Zoey and Sassafras, #3) by Asia Citro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This series is solid for new readers! Miranda and I are three books in and all three have been great! (Kindergarten to first grade.)

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Never Caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Definitely worth the time to read. I wish I knew exactly the difference between this and the kid version because I'd like to buy the kid version for my 9-year old son and eventually my younger daughter.

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Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Definitely fun but unnecessarily rapey in parts. Lots of great distinct characters, no plot holes, riveting throughout. Still, I would recommend it if you love apocalypse books (I do) but not otherwise.

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Multipliers by Liz Wiseman

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Surprisingly good for a business book. Really changed the way I see the management and inspiration of people. It seems to have applications outside the business world- I'm about to try it on my kids this summer and will report back.

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Very, Very, Very Dreadful by Albert Marrin

Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 by Albert Marrin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maybe 3.5? The main text about the 1918 flu pandemic left a lot to be desired. Notable though is how the political narratives about whether to protect lives or positively spin things for continued economic activity have been repeated in 2020. It's remarkable how very similar a lot of actions have been even as they've differed with more stay-at-home orders. Of the 1918 flu, Marrin wrote, "Throughout the pandemic, the nation lacked a uniform policy about gathering places, and there was no central authority with the power to make and enforce rules that everyone had to obey. Each community acted on its own, doing as its elected officials thought best." Um, yeah.

The last 20% of the book dealt with subsequent research regarding viruses and was really interesting, by which I mean completely terrifying.

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Monsters and Mold by Asia Citro

Monsters and Mold (Zoey and Sassafras, #2) by Asia Citro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It took a lot of tries this time, but Zoey persisted!

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