All the books I read in May and what I thought of them

Yesterday (at the time of writing) I had my wisdom teeth forcibly appropriated from my face and now I am convalescing (even though I am not really in a condition that requires convalescing any longer) and have finished three books during my convalescence and also eaten a lot of butternut squash soup. This is a win. This month, I read 12 interesting and exciting books. I came home after commencement and basically all I've done since then is read, and have my wisdom teeth stolen from me (they didn't let me keep my wisdom teeth when they took them out). So you see, finals week was not my final week!! I finished finals week, it did not finish me. 

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What Do Muslims Believe? by Ziauddin Sardar

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I really liked the writing style of this book; it was conversational and engaging and also really helpful for one of my final papers. You can tell that the author is a liberal Muslim but I didn't mind that bias because I thought his interpretation of Islam was above-average compelling.

🕋🕋🕋

Quest for the Living God by Elizabeth Johnson

rating: ⭐⭐

I had to read this book for my theology class. Like everything else I read for that class I disagreed with everything Elizabeth Johnson says. I don't think her ideas are interesting or compelling, and I would really only recommend this book to progressive Christians, maybe. A problem theologians have is that they don't know how to make their ideas clear, and the result of this is that Elizabeth Johnson and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops were feuding for a while in 2011 because the USCCB released a statement in which they said that Quest for the Living God misrepresented and went against Catholic teachings and Elizabeth Johnson's response was that she didn't say what they said she said and the USCCB's response was basically, if you didn't say those things, why does it sound so much like you said those things? And I wrote a paper on this feud and she did say more or less what the USCCB said she said (about non-Christian religions at least. I only wrote about their diverging ideas on the legitimacy of non-Christian religions. They feuded about other things too, like the trinity, but I didn't feel qualified to discuss that because I don't understand the trinity). This paper was not even a theology paper. It was like an advanced reading comprehension paper because Elizabeth Johnson doesn't know how to make herself clear whenever she has an inflammatory opinion, and, actually, neither does the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

🧭🧭🧭

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

rating: ⭐

I also read this book for my theology class. It is the dumbest book I have ever had the decided misfortune of reading in my whole life. I want to write CITATION NEEDED in big red letters on 237 pieces of printer paper and then glue the pieces of paper to every page of this godforsaken book. I have, as one might be able to guess from my thoughts on Quest for the Living God, all the spirituality of a cardboard box. And I don't hate spirituality itself or the ideas of more spiritual people, but I truly hate being talked down to and lectured about how one person's experience with spirituality is applicable to all people, and that they understand your situation, and that their spirituality is going to solve your problems. I would never ever have read this book of my own volition because it's pitched as a self-help book for blocked creatives, and even if I have artist's block, I don't care to fix it. So my experience of reading this book was being told that I'm a blocked creative (I'm not) and I'm scared to find my inner creativity (I'm not) but if I trust in God and open myself up to the benevolent universe it will solve my problems (it won't) and if I disagree with anything the author says, I'm in denial. If you like new age spirituality and art, you might like this book.

🎨🎨🎨

SPQR by Mary Beard (rereread)

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ordinarily I don't have great love for nonfiction books because they are always at least a little bit long and boring, but SPQR is one of my (many) comfort books and also much of the reason I am this close to being a classics (and poli sci) double major. I heard someone say once that the classics department is like a whirlpool in that you start out on the periphery (reading SPQR, for example) and it sucks you in. This person was correct. 

🗡️🗡️🗡️

Dividing the Spoils by Robin Waterfield

rating: ⭐⭐⭐

My Greek history professor recommended this book to me. The book itself was fine and well-written, but the historical period was really, really stupid. I thought World War I was an unnecessary war, but the wars of succession following the death of Alexander the Great were so much more unnecessary it would make your head spin. 

🤯🤯🤯

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

My friend Andrew lent me this book and also his French horn. Unfortunately, the nurse told me I can't play musical instruments until at least a week after the forcible appropriation of my wisdom teeth from my face. Pachinko is a generational saga about a Korean family immigrating to Japan and I liked almost everything about it except that I feel like the female characters, especially in the first 75% of the book were consistently less developed and three-dimensional than the male characters. I don't really think it has much to do with gender since the author is a woman, but it was still disappointing for me since I usually relate to female characters more than male characters. My other grievance is that the narrative moved too fast for me to care very much about any of the characters. But I was still very invested in the story even if I wasn't emotionally invested in the characters, if that makes any sense.

⌚⌚⌚

Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen (reread)

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I truly love this book so much, it is about love and friendship and loss, and it slays so severely. In some ways it is so lighthearted and there's sort of a running gag about how the protagonist (Katharina, an alleged witch) is obsessed with her cow, but in other ways it is very sad and beautiful. The author writes characters and dialogue and relationships so well. The title goes hard. 

🐄🐄🐄

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Another book about love and friendship!! I love it when books are about love and friendship, and I think A Thousand Splendid Suns is what I was wanting The Kite Runner to be like. I thought The Kite Runner was going to center around a friendship so deep that the characters will do anything for each other, and it didn't really, but this book did. Probably my least unpopular book-related opinion is that Khaled Hosseini is a really good writer. Celina recommended and lent me this book (thanks Celina).

☀️☀️☀️

The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood

rating: ⭐⭐

This retelling of the myth of Perseus and Medusa and Andromeda takes out every mythical element and it does it poorly. The story stops making sense, and Perseus becomes a cartoon villain, and no one even responds appropriately to his treachery. All of the women in this book are like, he's a good guy deep down, I can fix him BUT YOU CAN'T FIX HIM!! HE IS NOT THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE! HE IS LITERALLY JUST A GUY! HIT HIM WITH YOUR CAR!! This feminist retelling was not good and at this point I think I would prefer to read a misogynistic Greek myth retelling.

🚗🚗🚗

The Rise and Fall of Alexandria by Justin Pollard and Howard Reid

rating: ⭐⭐⭐

My Greek history professor also recommended this book to me. I wish this book was more focused on the everyday lives of ordinary Alexandrians than Alexandrian intellectual developments, but it was my own fault for thinking that the subtitle "Birthplace of the Modern Mind" meant that the book wasn't going to talk about Alexandria as the birthplace of the modern mind.

🧠🧠🧠

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Last year my friend Chaney let me borrow A Thousand Ships by this same author and I read about 10 pages before she needed it back and I now regret my sluggishness because this book was really good. I would recommend this book to Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch enjoyers, actually, since they have similar strengths. Stone Blind also does three-dimensional characters, dialogue, and relationships really well. Like, I could tell Medusa's sisters really loved her and it made me happy (at least, until the thing that happened to Medusa happened to Medusa) (no spoilers here). She really was just a little guy. The superior Perseus/Medusa/Andromeda retelling I read this month, for sure. 

🐍🐍🐍

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu (reread)

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is a great book and I made my friend Chaney read it and I'm sorry for the sadness it caused her, but, on another level, I'm not sorry because she enjoyed it on the whole. I don't recommend books that aren't good. This book caused me sadness not only because it is a sad book, but also because it made me forget about my tea and now my tea is cold. Every time I forget about my tea and it gets cold it brings me a little closer to death.

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This was a good month for reading. I have missed putting things in my spreadsheet and now I get to put things in my spreadsheet again.