What are you reading?

[LecktheTech]

Just picked up Howl's Moving Castle book 1. Good stuff so far!

You have a wealth of good book to read.

[the_wolfs_howl]

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Oh my goodness, this book was hard to get through It's the story of Louie Zamperini, an Olympic runner who became a pilot in WWII. His plane went down in the Pacific, and he drifted on a raft for 47 days until he washed ashore on an island occupied by the Japanese. Then he proceeded through a succession of POW camps until the end of the war. His story is definitely a case of the truth being stranger than fiction - if you made stuff like this up, people would just roll their eyes because it sounds impossible, but all of this actually happened. The best part of this book was the story of Louie's journey of faith. The way God takes what people mean for evil and uses it for good is just...so beautiful. I cried several times just because of how God molded this man's story of pain and suffering into a masterpiece of grace and mercy.

This book is a life-changer.

[Sundown]

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

This fun children's book felt like a cross between A Series of Unfortunate Events and the Professor Layton games Like those stories, this book doesn't talk down to its young audience, but assumes that the kind of kid who would pick up a thick book like this can figure out the tough words and concepts for themselves. The story follows four children who are recruited to infiltrate an evil man's operation to brainwash everyone in the world. Each of the four children has their own special skills, and they all have to work together to thwart the villain's plot. There was even a(n unintentional) sort of allegorical parallel to how God uses us to fight against the devil's lies.

I enjoyed the MBS, so it was a bit slow-paced for my taste. I really should pick it up again; that was a couple years ago. Maybe I'll appreciate it more, lol.

Anyways, I'm re-reading John Steinbeck's The Red Pony. It's a short collection of a boy's experiences on his family farm, highlighting the joys and sorrows that come with such a life. Don't go into it thinking it'll be a cute, happy horse story, though.

[Sheenar]

Reading "Howl's Moving Castle" book 1 --really enjoying it so far! I don't remember anything from the movie (it's been so long since I've seen it), so I'm enjoying going into the book blind.

[the_wolfs_howl]

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

A really interesting look into the mind of someone with autism. This is set in the near future, where they've developed a way to "heal" autism. So then the dilemma arises: Should autism be healed? Are people with autism more than their diagnosis? Is it a good thing to take away the patterns and difficulties and manners of thinking that autism brings, or is that taking away something fundamental of who they are? I found it a very engaging read, and a wonderful demonstration of what a lie "normal" is. We're all far more "abnormal" than we usually think.

The Case for Grace by Lee Strobel

A short but very emotional read. Strobel goes through several people's stories, including his own, that demonstrate the grace God gives us to draw us to Him. The different stories showed different kinds of grace, or different angles of that grace, to show that God doesn't just give it to us one way. He cares about the individual needs we have in our vastly different lives. Highly recommended.

[Rusty Claymore]

The Wise Woman by George MacDonald

I'd forgotten how a good book feels! George MacDonald paints a very different picture of self-ness than what we are given today. Today we are encouraged to feed our self-esteem, consider ourselves as Somebody, and to value our true self, as if self-ness was a valuable thing in it's own right. MacDonald rather mercilessly disagrees. It is not a self that is valuable or praiseworthy, it's a certain kind of self that is laudable. For certainly there are selves so ugly and miserable we can't stand hardly to look at them, especially when they tend to be our own.
In The Wise Woman two kinds of ugly selves are presented in the form of a little princess and a shepherd's daughter. Each receives intervention of sorts from the titular character, the Wise Woman. Rather than a simple fairy tale of inexplicable "Happily ever after"s, MacDonald delves into the why's and how's of the attitudes, methods, and thought processes of the characters, and what the consequences of those things will be. He's quite thorough, not settling with trite answers such as "doing what's right just because it's right". There's reasons and he gives them.
If you are looking for a book that makes you think, requires effort to read to understand, but rewards that effort abundantly, I highly recommend finding yourself a copy.

[the_wolfs_howl]

^ I second the recommendation! MacDonald's fairy tales are all really good, but that's probably my favorite because of how convicting it is.

Old Wolf by Avi

I picked this up in a book sale because I love Avi, and will read practically anything he's written. This is a short children's book that follows an old wolf and a young boy, and how their paths cross. I was a little disappointed with the ending, though I suppose it's more realistic than what I was hoping for Still a good read, especially if you like wolves as much as I do. Also beautifully illustrated.

[Kaori]

I wholeheartedly agree with both of you about The Wise Woman. It's one of the most chilling things I've ever read--because I can see some of those negative tendencies in myself. "The Golden Key" is my favorite of his stories, however.

Out of the books I listed above that I had started reading, I've finished A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruth Payne. Although it was somewhat helpful, it wasn't as helpful as I had hoped it would be. Part (but maybe not all) of that can be attributed to the dated information (I didn't buy the latest edition) and the fact that the book is geared towards educators, so there is a lot of information with strategies oriented towards the classroom that isn't of extreme relevance to readers outside the education field.

I've also started a couple of books in Japanese:

日本文化を英語で紹介する辞典 (The English title on the cover is, Traditional Japanese Culture & Modern Japan, but the actual meaning of the Japanese title is Dictionary to introduce Japanese culture in English.) This is a bilingual book, and the Japanese title is much more accurate, as this is a sort of mini-encyclopedia covering a lot of topics and key words in Japanese culture and society (both traditional and modern) with the aim of giving native Japanese persons the vocabulary they need in English to explain Japanese culture to English speakers. I'm reading the Japanese side. One thing to note about this book is that it is rather dated (1993), so that "modern" is relative. Other than that, it doesn't give an in-depth introduction to anything, so there are some topics within it where I'm not getting much new information because I've been learning about Japanese culture long enough to know these things already, but there are also plenty of cases where I am getting new information, so it might be worthwhile to look into for someone who wants an overview of a broad range of topics within Japanese culture: arts, recreation, religion, values, society, lifestyle, natural environment, and so on.

Also have been not reading cover-to-cover but referring to 就活の敬語 by 唐沢明 (Keigo for Job-searching by Kurasawa Akira). As the title says, keigo (super-polite humble/honorific language) for job seekers. Has some incredibly useful charts of "here's what the keigo version is of these normal-polite words," usefulness not limited to job-seekers.

[the_wolfs_howl]

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did I loved the worldbuilding; it was very detailed and interesting. But I discovered that I really don't like stories where the Chosen One of Destiny is kind of forced to become super-awesome, or is suddenly super-awesome without even barely trying. I want my heroes to have something awesome in them from the beginning, and I didn't see it in Harry, unfortunately :/

[Sundown]

Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis. I attempted to read his space trilogy a couple of years ago, but lost interest shortly after starting - I'm not sure why. I suppose I've developed a better appreciation for science fiction, because I'm enjoying it thus far.

I also picked up four art books from my local library. I'm now knee-deep in sketch ideas!

[the_wolfs_howl]

Books I've read since my last post:

Wolven by Di Toft
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
I Don't Want To Kill You by Dan Wells
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

[Kaori]

Return by Arch. Nektarios Antonopoulos. Really excellent short book on confession from an Orthodox perspective, but probably of little interest to someone who does not go to confession. (Catholics might find it to be of interest.)

Unseen Warfare (originally written by Lorenzo Scupoli, edited by Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain and revised by Theophan the Recluse, SVS Press). The first of the authors listed is a Catholic, the two editors/revisors are Orthodox, so although this version of the book is mostly an Orthodox work and from an Orthodox perspective, there are still traces of Western thought occasionally showing through under those layers.

However, setting all that aside, the book is a very valuable manual on spiritual warfare, covering topics such as fighting the passions, cultivating the virtues, and living a life of prayer. It is mostly focused on the battle that goes on internally within our own minds (with a "our thoughts determine our lives" outlook).

Other people's experiences might be different, but for me growing up as a Protestant, I didn't ever really have an awareness that there are actual techniques and habits that can be used to actively fight against the passions (e.g. pride, greed, lust), cultivate an awareness of God's presence, and so on. (In some cases, it wasn't until I converted and started to go to confession I even realized, "Oh, this thought pattern is bad, it is causing me larger problems in my life, and maybe I should do something about it?") So I've been very grateful to discover a whole tradition of methods that can be used to work on these things (fighting the vices and cultivating virtues) that have been tried and true over hundreds of years, because formerly I did not know that they existed.

In short, Unseen Warfare is very helpful and I would definitely recommend it.

Haiku Inspirations, which was written by a couple of people who are not particularly noteworthy scholars and which I read because it was given to me a gift, was a pleasant surprise and I did enjoy it.

It’s really not all about haiku; it’s a primer into Japanese history and culture generally. As such, it usually sticks to pretty basic territory, but nevertheless there were still some things I didn’t know, it was good to have a review of that kind of general knowledge (e.g. broad historical periods), and I was particularly impressed by with how much care and attention the book is put together in terms of the background layouts (e.g. the beautiful photography behind the haiku two-page spreads). It’s the sort of thing I would put on my coffee table if I had one.

I guess I also read some fiction since last time I posted:

Thorn by Insitar Khanani.

I've read other books by this author and enjoyed them, but this is not her best effort IMHO. I think my biggest complaint was that consistently the events were a huge surprise to the characters and which maybe were intended to be a surprise to the reader were extremely obvious and predictable to me.

There were also a few cases of ways that the main character responded to certain things particularly towards the end of the book that were a bit hard for me to believe. Also, looking back at the beginning of the book, there were some relationships that were not made clear to the reader (whether deliberate or not, it wasn't handled well and resulted in the reader simply wondering in the dark "Who is this person?" when it was obviously someone who had significance and had a past with the main character that was unknown to the reader).

BTW, as neither a criticism nor a praise but something that is just a little bit different, the author is American but spent some of her childhood growing up in various other countries and is Muslim, and there are some times when one can tell that her cultural perspective and her outlook on things are a bit different, e.g. there is a consistent strong emphasis in her works on things like debt and obligation and honor.

I would in fact recommend the author, just not this particular work, and my recommended reading order would be to start with the short story "The Bone Knife" (which is free) and then move on to the Sunbolt Chronicles (not free but only a few dollars each), which I think are well-plotted and free of the problems plaguing Thorn.

[the_wolfs_howl]

The Books of Umber: Happenstance Found by P.W. Catonese
An enjoyable YA fantasy book about a boy who is discovered in the ancient ruins of a city and joins a band of explorers/adventurers led by a quirky magician/inventor. The characters are all quirky and fun and have intriguing secrets, so I'll probably read the rest of this series eventually.

The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
What started out as a promising near-future sci-fi story set in Istanbul soon revealed itself as a poorly researched, un-proofread fiasco that is an insult to the complex culture it's set in.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by NOT J.K. Rowling so who cares
Utter. Complete. TRASH. I read the whole thing hoping I would eventually figure out how the heck this thing got published and why JKR okayed this in the first place...but I'm still scratching my head over it. The characterization of everyone is horrible, the plot is laughable and cliche, and there are tons of plot holes and continuity errors. This is bad fanfiction that somehow earns money

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
Napoleonic Wars + dragons. Need I say more?

William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope by Ian Doescher
Two classics of completely different kinds smooshed together. Fantastic. Beautiful. Exactly what a nerdy girl with an English degree needs

[PrincessNineTales]

The Hobbit.

Make It Happen by Lara Casey.

[the_wolfs_howl]

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

A classic about a boy raising a fawn as a pet. Perhaps better known as "WHY WAS I GIVEN EMOTIONS OH MY POOR BEATING HEART ;A;" Tragic and emotional, but I loved it.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

...which I'll admit I mostly picked up for the title This is a book about random, rare, weird mental issues the author has seen in his patients. Fascinating stuff for a psychology nerd like me, and all written very sensitively and humanely.

Dinner with a Perfect Stranger by David Gregory

What would happen if you received an invitation to dinner with Jesus Christ? Basically a book of apologetics couched in the story of a normal businessman trying to decide if he can actually believe the man sitting across the table from him is the Jesus of Nazareth. Very readable, a lot of spot-on observations.

Number9dream by David Mitchell

Weird, weird, weird. This is about a young Japanese man who goes to Tokyo in search of his father, whom he's never met. I enjoyed the odd experimentation Mitchell did with style, changing it up every chapter to keep you on your toes. But I didn't appreciate the amount of content, and I hated the abrupt, unsatisfying ending.

[IPv4]

"THE GIFT OF FEAR" by Gavin De Becker.

Have read over 100 pages in a few days, really interesting altough not always scientific. Helps one to understand the mindset of predators. If you like watching murder-mysteries, sherlock holmes, and other types of crime investigation you will definately like this book.

[the_wolfs_howl]

The Martian by Andy Weir

The hilarious and strangely uplifting tale of a man's struggle for survival alone on the planet Mars, and the hundreds of people on Earth who worked to get him back home. I think I like it even more than the movie, which by the way is an amazing adaptation.

Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke

A fun story about a boy who runs across a dragon and his brownie friend who are searching for the Rim of Heaven, a place where the last few remaining dragons can live in peace and safety. They run afoul of an evil cannibalistic dragon, and come across lots of other mythological creatures. It was delightfully whimsical while also full of enough peril to hold my interest.

Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft

This is a detailed look into the psychology and tactics of abusive men. It's not only intellectually interesting to someone fascinated by psychology, but I also think this should be required reading for absolutely everyone. The only way to combat abuse and help those who have suffered at the hands of abusive men is to understand how they think.

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

I finally got around to reading Lewis' thoughts as he grieved the death of his wife. Very honest, very poignant, very thought-provoking.

A Quest for More: Living for Something Bigger Than You by Paul Tripp

This was a very challenging, convicting book about living for the Kingdom, rather than just tithing a fraction of our time and resources and calling it enough. It definitely halted me in my tracks about a few things.

Getting Back in the Race: The Cure for Backsliding by Joel R. Beeke

I read this mostly because of my job in my church's library, and this was a new addition. But I think it would be a very helpful resource for anyone who's realized they're falling away and are afraid they can't get back to the way their relationship with God used to be.

Lilith by George MacDonald

At times confusing, but overall this allegorical tale was really interesting and thought-provoking. It's about a man who meets a talking raven who leads him to a magic mirror that becomes a portal to a parallel world. It's sort of a Pilgrim's Progress-esque tale of a man who realizes he needs to die before he can truly live. I could definitely see the influences MacDonald had on C.S. Lewis' writing.

[SierraLea]

I started the Magnus Chase series, and it has cemented Rick Riordan as one of my favorite authors. That book is funny, well researched, a very smart, thought-provoking read, and I cannot wait for the final book.

[Kaori]

Since last time:

The Prayers of St. Isaac the Syrian, published by Divine Ascent Press. Just a very short pamphlet but extremely powerful.

As my soul bows to the ground I offer to you with all my bones and with all my heart the worship that befits you. O glorious God, who dwell in ineffable silence, you have built for my renewal a tabernacle of love on earth where it is your good pleasure to rest, a temple made of flesh and fashioned with the most holy oil sanctuary. [. . .] In wonder at it, angelic beings are submerged in silence, awed at the dark cloud of this eternal mystery and at the flood of glory which issues from within this source of wonder, for it receives worship in the sphere of silence from every intelligence that has been sanctified and made worthy of you.

『結局、「1%に集中できる人」がすべてを変えられる』 (In the end, the person who can focus on the 1% can change everything) by Fujiyoshi Tatsuzo.

Basically it is a self-improvement book (in Japanese) aimed at people who are so overwhelmed with all the things that they have to do that they don't know what to do, so there are a lot of tips about eliminating things that are unnecessary in one's life (ranging from unnecessary social engagements to unnecessary thoughts and beliefs), focusing one's energy completely on whatever is the most important task in front of you, and also on finding out what it is that you most want to do in life and figuring out what you need to do to achieve it. I felt like the author took a long time to say things that could have been said much more briefly; also I didn’t do any of the exercises he recommended, so whatever benefit can be gotten out of this book, the amount I actually got out of it is minimal. It was not bad, though--but also not great.

Not quite done with, but I will go ahead and list:

新完全マスター文法 日本語能力試験N2 (New Complete Master Grammar: JLPT N2)

It's a workbook for the JLPT N2. (I already did a N1 workbook a while ago but I thought I'd go back and review what I skipped.) Very helpful and well put-together. The workbook I used for N1, N1文法スピードマスター (N1 Grammar Speed Master), which was made by a different company, was also helpful and wasn't a bad book, but between the two I would definitely recommend the Complete Master series for people who are studying JLPT grammar.

That's all for things I have finished reading or almost finished reading (or working through in the case of the workbook) since I last posted. But I read a few short works from The Apostolic Fathers (ed. Jack Sparks) so I guess I'll share those.

Polycarp’s Letter to Philippi was indeed, as the editor said, very lacking in originality and was mostly rearranged quotations and paraphrases from the New Testament.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp was mildly interesting, but I had heard all the best bits already in lectures and sermons.

From I Clement, one interesting point was that Clement saw Rahab’s cloth that she hung outside her window in order for her and her family not to be killed as symbolic of salvation in Christ (similar to the Passover). I also liked the phrase “savior of those in despair” from 59.3. I feel like there was something else I felt was noteworthy but I can't remember what it was. I think it mostly felt very similar to the New Testament.

[Kaori]

Nobody is reading books?

From The Apostolic Fathers, ed. Jack Sparks: Shepherd of Hermas, Epistle of Barnabas, and the Didache (the latter two were rereads). With that, I have finished the book.

Sheperd of Hermas: As the editor (Jack Sparks) points out, Hermas is not a theologian. There's some normal, decent moral teaching, but there's definitely a passage where he appears to have an adoptionistic Christology (there are some scholars who argue that is not what he is saying, however), and that is one of those things we kind of just excuse because the Church had not yet at that time (2nd century) clearly defined its Christology and theology in the Nicean Creed.

Epistle of Barnabas: I had been trying to remember, while reading through this volume of the Apostolic Fathers, where that weird passage was from that was talking about sexual sins and comparing them to the actions of certain animals but with totally incorrect ideas, e.g. hyenas change their gender every year. This is the book that's from. Aside from that, overall, it has a lot of really extremely allegorical readings of Scripture. It wasn't all weird, out-there stuff, however; there were quite a few interesting tidbits that weren't totally out in left field, also, for example, there's a completely plain command against both abortion and infanticide, like in the Didache (infanticide in addition to abortion was widely practiced in the ancient world, and the ancient Christians would rescue abandoned babies left to die of exposure and raise them as their own).

Didache: I enjoyed this statement by the editor: "Athanasius, the outstanding and heroic bishop of Alexandria in that [fourth] century, recommended it highly as a good basic book for new converts to read. We would have to say the same thing today. It is certainly far more useful than most of the material we find on the shelves of contemporary Christian bookstores." Like he said, I think it is a really great, basic (and short!) book for Christians to read, I enjoyed rereading it, and I think out of all the writings of the Apostolic Fathers that were collected into this volume it was the most worthwhile.

Other things:

Brothers of Earth by C.J. Cheryh. Sci-fi story about a man whose spaceship lands on a habitable and inhabited alien planet but who has no way to return, so he is stuck there for the rest of his life. He gets found by some people from one of the societies there, integrates himself into their society, and gets caught up in a civil war. While the premise sounds good, the execution was so-so. Pacing was often rushed and there were many things not adequately explained; I found the main character's personality to be contradictory at times and not very convincing; and although the author did put a lot of time and detail into trying to create the alien cultures, I personally generally find when reading fiction about alien or fictional cultures that fictional cultures can't hold a candle to the complexities of real foreign cultures, so they always come across as fake and as a blending of various elements from real-world cultures rather than original. There were also some things identifiably American-culture about the way the book was written and the way the main character acts (his nationality was not specified), which is just something that always catches my attention.

I guess the main other thing that is noteworthy about the book is that it is typical of a trend in SF written by women, which is that there tends to be more of a focus on anthropology and relationships than on "hard" science fiction. Besides having a lot of effort dedicated to fleshing out the alien culture, the book is also, as the title suggests, despite the civil wars and whatever going on, at its heart a story about the friendship and family bond between two men. That kind of focus has its own appeal and strong points, so this is not a criticism of the fact that the author focuses on those things (I tend to like that kind of focus myself), but there may be better-executed examples out there.

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi.

This is an autobiographical graphic novel about a girl growing up in Iran leading up to and during the Iraq-Iran war.

There are some things I found out by reading this book, like that during WWII the Allies asked Iran to ally with them (because they had oil), but the ruler said no and declared Persia neutral—so the Allies invaded and occupied Iran.

I don’t think that was in our history books.

There was some adult language and content in this book, but I was moved by the author's early relationship with God (and saddened by her loss of it), and I think overall it is one of those kinds of books that is good to read because it makes you aware of the kinds of things people have gone through in other parts of the world. Recommended.

反省しないアメリカ人をあつかう方法34 (How to Handle Unreflective Americans: 34 Ways) by Rochelle Kopp (founder and Managing Principal of an international consulting firm focusing on Japanese businesses). This book is interesting in that it is written in Japanese (not translated) by an American. It is a book of advice for Japanese people who work with Americans and explains a lot of the cultural differences and differences in ways of doing business that cause friction between Japanese and Americans who work together and gives advice for how to address them.

There were a few places here and there where I disagreed to some extent with something she said about Japanese culture, for example, she was giving some reasons why Japanese people tend to not praise their subordinates very much, and she didn't mention at all one main reason which is that Japanese people tend to feel shy or ashamed about praising people, and she also said that Japanese people might think that if they praise an American about their work performance, the American will expect a raise or promotion (I don't think Japanese people are thinking this, and I asked a couple of Japanese people who also don't think Japanese people are thinking that, but Ms. Kopp has long experience with Japanese companies and is running a consulting company specifically for Japanese-American business, so perhaps she really has encountered in her experience some Japanese people who think this way). Come to think of it, there were a few places where I disagreed with what she said about American culture, also. (She said that talking about family at work is taboo for Americans, but in the places I have worked that has been an accepted norm and is usually one of the first conversation topics that people go to when trying to make small talk; maybe it is a regional difference?)

However, although I've mentioned a few things I disagreed with, most of the book was not like that and was pretty much on-target, and I thought it was very helpful. It is only available in Japanese (written for a Japanese audience), but for those who are interested in this kind of topic but don't speak Japanese she has also written some books in English, like the unfortunately-titled The Rice-Paper Ceiling: Breaking Through Japanese Corporate Culture

http://www.pacificdreams.org/e/bookstor ... ochelle_en

Reread the two books of the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay:
The Summer Tree
The Wandering Fire

I haven't read these books in a long time (well over 10 years), but I was amazed by how many specific details and moments from these books had stuck with me after reading them only once or twice as a child. A few thoughts upon returning to them as an adult:

Negatives:
- Highly derivative (LoTR etc.)
- At times overly sentimental, sometimes to the point of cheesiness
- Including fantasy races (but not including the villains), almost every character in the book series is caucasian/white, and although there's one remarkable beauty who is dark-skinned, for the most part it really sticks closely to a standard of beauty of fair hair and pale skin; even the people group that resemble native Americans are in this book white.
- There are a lot of instances of women being referred to as "girls" (however, please note that overall these books are not sexist and have plenty of independent and strong female characters.)
- Although it is mostly not at all explicit (there is one exception), the characters have sex so frequently and indiscriminately that it's laughably unrealistic. Pretty much everybody is having sex all the time. There are also some things like in the Native-American-like culture, the cultural norm is "women call the shots and they sleep with whomever they want prior to marriage," and there is a female-led religion with a bunch of priestesses who, except for a few of the very most high-ranking ones, on one night every year ritually go out into the town and find some random person to sleep with. It is like a world in which STDs, unwanted pregnancies, and single mothers living in poverty do not exist.

Positives:
- The world is carefully-constructed and has a lot of history, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming or boring; there are also a few tweaks to some of the fantasy tropes to make it not the same as every other fantasy book out there.
- There are some parts of the books that are genuinely emotionally powerful.
- I was amazed by the author's ability to give the five main characters very distinctive personalities from the very first chapter of the book. With a large cast of characters, of course some characters are more developed than others, but for the most part characters are well-drawn and there is good development of the characters who get development.
- As I mentioned above, the books do have plenty of strong and independent female characters who have meaning relationships with each other, not just with the male characters.
- In the case of the character who is raped, the book deals very seriously with spelling out how life-shattering it is and how extreme the lasting damage is, which I think is necessary when dealing with that topic.
- Overall the series is well-paced and enjoyable.

[SierraLea]

I finished The False Prince and have to say, I saw the ending coming from a mile away. Who wouldn't? Was the author even trying to keep that a secret? I did grow to love some of the characters, though.

[SierraLea]

I was homeschooled until college, and one thing my mom loved to do was to read our literature books, religion books, and sometimes history books during long car rides. It was better than any TV show, game on your phone, or music playlist.
So when I went back for Thanksgiving a week or so ago, I asked if I could bring one of those books back with me to read until I saw them again at Christmas, and so I present
A Murder for Her Majesty
It takes place during Elizabethan times, about a young girl who witnesses her father's assassination and must hid amidst an all-boy choir until she is able to get help. But the assassins are much closer than she thinks! Will the choir director find out she's a girl and expose her? Will the assailants find and silence her? And what about that crotchety old accompanist?
It was a great read when I was a kid, and it's even more amazing now, because I can look at it as a writer myself and say, that was a really brilliant piece of storytelling. I would recommend this book to anyone.

[K. Ayato]

Finishing an audio version of Scarlet, by Stephen R. Lawhead, book 2 of the King Raven trilogy.

[Kaori]

Finally finished the additional exercises in the back of 完全マスター文法：日本語能力試験N2 which I mentioned a year ago??? or more? For those who don't read Japanese this is the N2 grammar textbook, Kanzen Master series. Although I already passed N2 a while ago, this book had some materials in the back about the overall structure of sentences in Japanese that were really helpful to go through and that I think can't be learned just by memorizing grammar expressions. So it was very helpful. For anyone out there who happens to be studying Japanese, Kanzen Master is a JLPT textbook series that gets recommended a lot, and I've only used this one book, but it was very good, so I would add my recommendation as well.

Also went through a JLPT listening textbook called 日本語能力試験N1・N2試験に出る聴解. It is a book that seems to be out of print and was last revised in 2010. I think probably the reason it is OOP is that although supposedly it was revised to reflect the restructuring of the JLPT test in 2010, it actually does not match the content or the difficulty of the new JLPT very well. It wasn't totally unhelpful, but I think there are probably a lot of better resources out there.

Wounded by Love by Saint Poryphios. This is a memoir and some teachings of an Orthodox saint put together by some of his disciples. It had a few difficult points, but overall, it had a lot of teachings that were good and helpful. I'm not sure I would necessarily recommend it to a non-Orthodox person.

The Sorceress and the Cygnet by Patricia McKillip.

Overall I more or less like Patrica McKillip, but I felt like both the plot and the style of this book were failures. Her prose is sometimes too dense and affected, to the point where you have to stop and think to try to figure out what she is trying to say. I think (as someone who does like poetry) that although that's okay and even desirable in poetry, in a novel, I don't want to have the flow of the story interrupted that way; I want to be able to be able to read through the story at a smooth pace. Also, the entire plot itself felt to me like a story that in the end turned out to not have a point, kind of like how stories that turn out to be, in the end, all a dream in some character's head are usually not a good idea because then there's no point to it all unless the dreamer was actually changed in real life in some way by the events in the dream. (At the end of the story, everything is just the way it was at the beginning.) This story wasn't a dream story, but in a similar way, SPOILER: Highlight text to read: all of the beings that were foreshadowed throughout the whole story as being dangerous, malicious enemies, in the end basically said, "Psych! We didn't mean you any harm at all!" and tamely retreat on their own back to where they came from. The ending felt very false to all of the foreshadowing and everything that was being pointed to earlier in the book; to me it felt really unbelievable. Online reviews have said that the sequel is better, so I hope that is the case since I bought them both at the same time.

The series Black Unicorn, Gold Unicorn, and Red Unicorn by Tanith Lee.

Black Unicorn was a childhood favorite of mine when I am growing up, but I had only read the first book. I felt nostalgic and decided to read the whole trilogy from the beginning.

Black Unicorn: This is a book that even now as an adult I can still enjoy. It is well-written, with tongue-in-cheek humor and just enough description to paint a picture when needed and create a sense of the world without wasting any space or getting bogged down (the book is only a little over 100 pages). The heroine is (especially at the beginning of the story) a huffy teenager and acts a little bit stuck-up, but other than that, she is a clever, resourceful, and intelligent person who, interestingly, has a talent for fixing things (which is out of the ordinary for a female character). So overall, I like her as a strong, unique heroine. P.S. It is totally possible to read only this one book by itself and have a sense of closure.

Gold Unicorn: Preachy, plodding, and breaks the golden rule of writing "Show, don't tell" in some pretty bad ways. A main plot element in this book is that Tanaquil (the heroine) falls in love with someone, but other than the first time she saw him she thought he was handsome, they seem to dislike each other thoroughly, and there seems to be nothing appealing about him, but then all of a sudden the readers are told some things like that Tanaquil realized she was sticking around for his sake and "she realized then that she loved him." It is one of those relationships where the two leads bicker all the time but actually like each other; however, although I've seen this successfully done (e.g. the book Howl's Moving Castle), the execution in this book is completely unconvincing to me.

Red Unicorn: In this book, Tanith Lee gets her magic back. This is a story in which SPOILER: Highlight text to read: most of the events in the middle of the book are a dream that Tanaquil is experiencing, and does not realize are a dream, but all of the events in the plot do have meaning and make a difference in the life of the characters. Tanaquil goes into a different world which is charmingly droll (e.g. the sky is a delightful shade of apple green, ferocious beasts in the forest attack and devour nuts and vegetables, etc.) and mostly enjoyably quaint and humorous without a lot of real danger--though Tanaquil does have her hands full trying to prevent a murder, so the plot is not slow-paced or lacking in tension. Throughout the book Tanaquil discovers she has a lot of abilities she didn't know she had which allow her to do pretty much anything she wants. The reason this doesn't prevent the plot from having tension is because what Tanaquil has to accomplish to persuade another person of something (to not murder her sister), which isn't something that can be accomplished just by Tanaquil walking through walls. Anyways, the sense of Tanaquil discovering she can do these things feels very joyful and freeing for the reader, also, so that combined with the benign nature of the world make the book really just a delight to read. Also, psychologically Tanaquil realizes a lot about herself and goes through a lot of personal growth; she is able to make the decisions she needs to do move forward in a positive direction in her life. It was even worth it trudging through the pedantic and slow-paced Gold Unicorn to get to this one, so I'm glad I read through the whole series.

[GhostontheNet]

Not long ago, I finished reading Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate by Zoe Quinn. I must say, this has given me profound nostalgia for how this forum maintained a spirit of civility, so I figure it's a good time to return for old time's sake.

[SierraLea]

I read Ultimate Makeover a few weeks ago in preparation for what will happen to me in December. It was a very enlightening read and I encourage anyone in my position to do the same.

[Kaori]

Okay, this is a list of most everything I have read since the last time I posted in here (Dec. 2017), so I will keep my comments brief.

Fantastic Creatures, an indie writer short story anthology. Quality varied.

Stepping from the Shadows by Patricia McKillip. It is a fictional novel about a girl living in the post-WWII era with dissociative identity disorder and psychosis, and with two different personalities, the narrator and “Frances,” trying to come to terms with her sexuality and life in general.

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. A key work on body-based treatment of trauma.

Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge. Novel about the life paths of two sisters, one who marries and one who does not. Pretty, but awfully long-winded at times, and the Christian author ties in Christianity quite a bit, but also mixes in some ideas about reincarnation and so on.

就職の敬語 (Keigo for Job-Searching) is not a book I would really recommend for non-native Japanese speakers because it is arranged situationally, which is not what language-learners really need to learn keigo, and addresses a lot of slang that it might not even occur to foreigners to use, depending on what kind of Japanese they've been exposed to.

Bread & Water, Wine & Oil by Archimandrite Melitios Weber. The explanation of the Orthodox Mysteries (sacraments), the second half, was good, but the introduction to that (Part I: Life as Mystery) was phenomenal. A book I would definitely recommend to non-Eastern-Orthodox people who want to learn about Eastern Orthodoxy.

Zarah the Wind-Seeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. Delightful YA novel by a Nigerian-American author.

The Cygnet and the Firebird by Patricia McKillip: Not as bad as The Sorceress and the Cygnet, but not great, either.

The Firethorn Crown by Lea Doué: Indie novel retelling of the 12 Dancing Princesses fairy tale. Had some good points (character development of the sisters) and some things that were extremely frustrating (the stupidity and cowardice of the female lead).

Nemesis by Asimov. Good interrelation of the different plot threads and scientific concepts; poor pacing and characterization.

Wolfskin, by W.R. Gingell. YA very loose retelling of Red Riding Hood as a murder mystery. Love the female lead, who is a complete tomboy scamp who goes through a lot of growth in the course of the book; love the world as well. I've read several other books by this author since, and this remains my favorite.

Lady of Dreams by W.R. Gingell. Interesting concept but very boring for the first 2/3 of the book.

The Girl, the Gypsy & the Gargoyle by Darcy Pattison. Great realistic medieval setting in which death is always around the corner. The magical adventure is dangerous, threatening, and frightening. I feel like the book failed to live up to its full potential because it raised some moral questions, but ultimately it seemed like the main character just did not have any ability to control her actions at the end, casting moral accountability into doubt.

Masque by W.R. Gingell. Another murder mystery by this author, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Not bad, really, but came across to me as a mashup of her other two books I had previously read, and the time period (Regency-based) and male lead were not very appealing to me.

ファッション・身だしなみ : Japanese 100-yen book on fashion and grooming; 60% of the book was devoted to men's fashion, so I am guessing this was written by a man. Mildly useful but mostly a case of "you get what you pay for."

Waking the Tiger by Peter A. Levine. Another groundbreaking work for body-based trauma theory.

十二国記：月の影、影の海（下）。 (12 Kingdoms: Shadow of the Moon, the Sea of Shadow, vol. 2). I'm not sure whether this is well-written or not. There is some good psychological realism, but things like pacing are a bit wonky at times.

Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Does not hold up against modern standards. Excessively verbose, the male lead is verbally abusive, and the female lead hates everyone and everything except a few choice friends, which makes the book torture to read. Looked at from a certain way, the overall plot and what goes on emotionally is kind of brilliant . . . but I wouldn't recommend it.

Reread "The Bone Knife" by Intisar Khanani, which continues to hold up as an excellent short story no matter how many times I read it.

The Organized Mind by Daniel J. Levitin. The section on medical decision making, in particular, should be read by all, and overall it had a lot of good information, but the organization of the book could be improved.

Between Jobs by W.R. Gingell. Not quite my thing (teen urban paranormal murder mystery); read it because it was on sale for $0.99. I feel like I have encountered heroines with exactly this kind of scrappy personality several times before in YA fiction, and it makes me nostalgic for heroines who have qualities like dignity and self-respect.

Tales of Ever After: A Fellowship of Fantasy Anthology is another indie fantasy anthology, but overall of fairly good quality.

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois. Illuminating look into how black people were systematically kept in poverty and ignorance after emancipation; needs annotation for the historical figures DuBois refers to who were well-known in his time but not now.

12 Days of Faery by W.R. Gingell. My second favorite book so far by this author after Wolfskin. Likeable characters; also noteworthy for the way this author has brought back the concept of fae who are most often dangerous, fickle, and cruel.

[shooraijin]

Goodness, I feel like I haven't accomplished anything!

[Furen]

I've been working, slowly but surely, through the entirety of the Amazing Spider-Man comic run. I'm currently in the middle of the Civil War arc.

[Sennin]

R. E. Lee: A Biography Vol. 2 by Douglas Southall Freeman

This four part biography of Robert E. Lee is the most authoritative work on his life. Freeman won fame for the way he used the "fog of war" technique in narrating the battles. (During the narration of a battle, the reader only knows what Lee knew. Afterwards, Freeman examines the blunders and points of good generalship on both sides.) It's a great biography if you're a Civil War buff like me.

Kristin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath by Sigrid Undset

As a lover of the sagas, I'm happy to finally get around to this classic novel about life in 14th century Norway. Kristin is a young girl when the tale begins. The country is Christian, but it seems as though some of the vestiges of paganism still exist.

The Catholic Controversy by St. Francis de Sales

This is a collected edition of St. Francis de Sales's theological pamphlets, through which he converted the Calvinists of Chablis back to Catholicism. One of the most important works of the Counter-Reformation.

The Second World War: Volume III by Winston Churchill

The third part of Churchill's mammoth history of WWII. The theme of this volume concerns "How the British fought on with hardship until Soviet Russia and the United States were drawn into the great conflict," and it covers the year 1941. Churchill is an excellent writer, which helps keep the reader going through the tons of primary source material he adduces at every turn.

The House without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers

Here is the first of the Charlie Chan mystery novels. I loved the movies. Biggers is a good writer, but I only wish the story was told from Chan's perspective. An enjoyable mystery so far.