No.482: What I Read in January 2021

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#1. ONE BY ONE by Ruth Ware
★★★★☆

This was my fourth Ruth Ware novel and while it took me a few chapters to get into it, I really enjoyed it.  The story takes place in a chalet in the French Alps where a group of tech company employees come for a corporate retreat.  Tensions are already high when a terrible avalanche cuts the group off from civilization and one by one, the group starts dwindling in number.  This book definitely had an Agatha Christie feel and even though I had a pretty strong idea of whodunit (and was right in the end), I still felt it was a solid thriller.  Three and a half stars, rounded up.         

#2. THEOLOGY OF HOME: FINDING THE ETERNAL IN THE EVERYDAY by Carrie Gress, Noelle Mering & Megan Schrieber
★★★★☆

We can open our lives and homes to people placed in our path from other walks of life and world views.  With a greatly diminished number of people actually practicing the faith, it becomes more likely that our homes are a rare opportunity for someone in our acquaintance to be invited into the intimacy of Catholic family life.  To do this well we must first and foremost be constantly drawing from our Lord so that he might be reflected through us.  We bear a great responsibility to represent him well. (p.146)

Unless we are Lord or Lady Crawley, we will likely spend a lot of our time laboring at a job, in the home, or at school.  Whatever it is that we’re doing, dull or glamorous, in doing it for love of Christ, it becomes an extension of our prayer life and a vehicle for sanctification.  If we cannot find Christ in our work where we are now, we will have a hard time finding him anywhere else. (p.161)

I’ve had this book on my wishlist for awhile, so I was thrilled to receive a copy for Christmas!  (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)  It’s so much more than home décor inspiration – the bulk of the book consists of theological essays on the elements of home and the domestic Church.  I found many things to ponder, especially in the area of hospitality.

#3. THE PARASITIC MIND: HOW INFECTIOUS IDEAS ARE KILLING COMMON SENSE by Gad Saad
★★★★☆ 

I learned about this book after watching an interview on Youtube. I was intrigued by his wit and his completely countercultural understanding of the world today. He’s in the same vein as Jordan Peterson in that he comes to reason from a non-religious, but logical perspective. I don’t agree completely with everything he says, but it certainly was refreshing to hear counter-arguments for some of the more nonsensical things we’ve had pushed down our throats lately. It gave me a lot to think about.  3.5 stars, rounded up.

#4. THE SERMONS OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES: FOR ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS
★★★★☆ 

Thus, it is a very good prayer simply to present one’s needs to Our Lord, place them before the eyes of His goodness, and leave it to Him to act as He sees fit, convinced that He will answer us according to our needs. (p.110)

This was my religious book for Advent and Christmas.  In all, there are nine sermons from Saint Francis de Sales included and they were so good and relatable.  Hard to believe they were written in the early 17th century!  I really appreciated the analogies he used to describe some of the harder theological concepts.  

#5. THE THIRTEENTH TALE by Diane Setterfield
★★★☆☆

We all have our sorrows, and although the exact delineaments, weight and dimensions of grief are different for everyone, the color of grief is common to us all.  “I know,” he said, because he was human, and therefore, in a way, he did. (p.389)

The Thirteenth Tale was described to me as a type of gothic suspense novel that contained a story within a story and had a bookish/library element.  I was intrigued!  I flew through the first half, but the story lost some steam for me after that.  The end was a complete surprise and I never saw it coming.  All in all, a solid three star read.  (P.S. There is a bit of vague scandalous behavior in parts, but nothing explicit or vulgar.)

#6. THE BEAN TREES by Barbara Kingsolver
★★★☆☆

This is the story of a girl named Taylor who sets out on an adventure to get away from her poor, rural Kentucky hometown.  She ends up in Tuscon, Arizona and meets a handful of loveable, really unique characters.  This book hit on some hard issues (the back of the book says that she “meets the human condition head-on”) and gave me things to think about.  I like books that do that.  (This was also my 1988 pick for the 20th Century in Books Challenge.)

#7. BEHOLD THE DREAMERS by Imbolo Mbue
★★★☆☆

I didn’t intentionally mean to read two books about immigrants back to back, but here we are!  I actually was browsing through “Booktube” (Youtube channels about books) and stumbled on a Buzzword Reading Challenge.  January’s prompt was “dream” and this book was the only one I owned with that word in the title.  It’s been on my shelf for awhile, so I was excited to finally read it.  The book is about a young Cameroonian family trying to make it in New York City at the beginning of the recession.  A thought-provoking read.  

#8. THE MINIATURIST by Jessie Burton
★★☆☆☆

This book was…weird.  On one hand, it was really compelling and I had a hard time putting it down.  The writing was great and the descriptions of Amsterdam in the 1600s were captivating.  BUT.  I just couldn’t understand how all the moving pieces, all the themes, and especially all of the magical realism connected together.  Too many of the most important parts were unexplained.  Just an okay read for me.  (P.S.  Definitely a PG13+ read in some parts.  I had to skim some of the more racy sexual scenes.)    

#9. SAINT JOHN PAUL THE GREAT: HIS FIVE LOVES by Jason Evert
★★★★☆

Young people didn’t make the trips to see him because he was simply a good man, but because he was capable of revealing to them their own capacity for goodness. He saw something in the youth that perhaps they didn’t even see in themselves. As one attendee of World Youth Day remarked, “He showed us to ourselves.” John Paul did this by directing them to the person of Jesus Christ. In his words, “Without the Gospel, man remains a dramatic question with no adequate answer.” The youth wanted answers, and John Paul never vacillated in offering them. He knew young people well enough to understand that they don’t want a watered-down version of the faith. They want to be presented with the fullness of the faith. They want to be presented with the fullness of a message, and then be given the freedom to accept or reject it. He knew this, and reminded teens in Madison Square Garden that they are “approaching that stage in your life when you must take personal responsibility for your own destiny.” (p.94)

After picking up and putting down this book for months, I finally finished!  An inspiring read – I have a special love for JPII.

#10. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
★★★★☆

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL.  BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS. (p.134)

This little book is definitely a well-known classic and I finally got a copy!  Boy oh boy, was this a timely read.  This analysis/summary post was interesting and helpful to explain the history and flesh out the ideas.  You could make the argument that we are seeing some of the same things today.   (This was also my 1945 pick for the 20th Century in Books Challenge.)