January! New year, new resolutions, new books. And also old books — very old. This was a month of great classics: Gilgamesh, Antigone, A Canticle for Leibowitz. A great start to the year, though not without disappointments.
Signal to Noise
Neil Gaiman
It’s extremely bizarre, it’s a little pretentious — and it’s without a doubt one of the best graphic novels I’ve ever read. The whole Gaiman situation obviously complicates things, but for me this was a work of beauty that arrived at exactly the right time and in the right mood for thinking about death, art, and hope. A wonderful experience.
The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers’ Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda
Nathalia Holt
An interesting story told in a very boring way — and based on other reviews, one that also managed to get a lot of the expedition’s historical details wrong. I can at least confirm that many of the exaggerations (the mystique of the panda) felt too forced for me, but since I’m no expert on the subject, all I can say is: what a shame.
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
James C. Scott
A strong anarchist angle in trying to explain how central planning fails, with examples from around the world and throughout history: from forestry in France to collectivization in the Soviet Union. It has its moments and strong arguments, is actually fun to read, and tries to be empathetic, but the argument falls apart in places, shoots at straw men, and picks its targets carefully. Still a worthwhile read, you’ll just hear too much about monocultures and too little about state-provided education.
How to Keep House While Drowning
K.C. Davis
I sometimes struggle with keeping house (who doesn’t). I need a bit more self-compassion and we as a couple could always use tips on running a household together. I was definitely not the target audience for this book. A few notes were useful, most went in odd directions, and what killed it for me were the book’s attempts to be MEGA accessible, crossing over into infantilization.
Gilgamesh: The New Translation
Anonymous
There’s something unique about it — reading the oldest possible story, especially when it’s, well, still quite a good epic read.
Love, Gravity, and God: Paul Tillich and the Existential Depths of Reason and Religion
Jeremy D. Yunt
Evaluating summaries and interpretations always carries inherent problems. Is the original problematic? Does the author misinterpret the message? Or do they simply fail to convey it meaningfully?
As far as I can tell, this is a reasonable introduction to Tillich and existential/rationalized Christianity. Am I an expert now? Not at all. Do I know enough to place Tillich and compare him with other theologians? I hope so. Do I want to read more of him? Absolutely.
Come Closer
Sara Gran
A solid and enjoyable take on demonic possession / ordinary madness by a woman, through a woman, written by a woman. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, delivers several genuinely scary scenes, and remains open to many interpretations. It didn’t blow me away, but I enjoyed it and the book accomplished what it set out to do.
The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance
W. Timothy Gallwey
You could sum it up as “listen to your body and embrace stoicism,” but it pursues its point in a way that hit home for me, even though I’m decidedly NOT a sports person. A nice little read, even if some of the recommendations are a bit outdated now and we know more about how the mind and learning work.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter M. Miller Jr.
Loved it. The cyclical nature of history, the different approaches to wisdom, a very clever depiction of post-apocalypse, and especially given how old this thing actually is, a fascinating freshness.
Antigone
Sophocles
An absolute knockout that managed not only to inspire entire discourses on ethics, law, and governance, but is also still a FUN play where all the characters (perhaps except the divinely inspired Tiresias) have complex and understandable motivations in the smallest possible space.