That's right folks, it's another batch of books. Dig in.
This was recommended to me by a classmate, and I am really glad it came to my attention because it was fantastic. The author's writing is so poetic and elegant. This author also wrote Song of Achilles, which I read later on and will include in this post. The formality and certainty in the language used takes you back to another era. Every word--whether just descriptive by the author or as a piece of dialogue of a character--is so intentional. No word feels unnecessary. I loved this book and found it so wise and poignant. Highly recommend. I rated this book
10/10.
- The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides
I rated this book
7.5/10. If I were to re-rate it, I might drop that to 6.5 or 6 to be honest. This was a mystery, and I tend to be pretty critical of mysteries. It might be one of my least favorite genres lol. There are some mystery/thriller books that are really well done, but I feel like a lot of the genre is kind of typical, kind of pandering at superficial suspense.
I thought this was decent--it didn't really wow me, but it also didn't like abjectly disappoint me. There was, as most mysteries tend to include, a twist towards the end which I had not seen coming, so I guess that says something. Perhaps I didn't see it coming because it didn't make, like, complete sense and seemed a bit odd. Lol. But anyways, it was alright. I wouldn't recommend that someone go out of their way to read it, though.
- The Body Keeps the Score - Bessel Van Der Kolk
This book was a big disappointment, and I rated it
4.5/10. I had seen acquaintances and colleagues recommend it and speak highly of it, so I was surprised that I did not enjoy it really at all. I did not find it particularly worthwhile. It was a bit difficult for me to get through, and I found it horribly, horribly repetitive. That was one of my biggest complaints. So many of the same points and concepts were repeated over and over again in only slightly different words, to the point where I was actually fully conscious of that and was getting annoyed by it because it was contributing so unnecessarily to the book's length. It was like a mediocre college student's paper that had a length requirement but not enough new substance, so the student just kind of kept rephrasing the same sorts of things. I just kept waiting for it to end, waiting and waiting and waiting for it to end, because I felt like I had already read too much to give it up.
- The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down -Anne Fadiman
This was a really intriguing piece of non-fiction. It was about Hmong history, culture, and immigration generally, but also focused specifically on a Hmong family in California. It was set back several decades ago, and followed the life of the family's daughter who was epileptic. The family believed her seizing had to do with spirits, and they wanted to primarily address it with their religious remedies. She was, of course, subject to medical intervention on various occasions and the doctors were oftentimes very frustrated by what they perceived as a lack of commitment by the parents to the medical treatment of the child. There were issues with the parents not following prescription specifications & not medicating the daughter appropriately, but it was very complicated because the parents were illiterate--they could not speak English, nor could they read or write Hmong or any other language.
I had known essentially nothing about Hmong culture and history, and granted I still know very little, but at least now I know from this book that the Hmong aided the United States in the Vietnam War but were then essentially hung out to dry by the United States afterwards. The United States essentially left them there to face discrimination and violence. In Thailand and in Laos, the Hmong population was persecuted, and it is for that reason that there is a large Hmong population in the United States.
An interesting tidbit, not really related to the main substance of the book but rather just mentioned by the author in passing, was a situation that occurred in the early 2000s in Northern Wisconsin when a Hmong hunter shot and killed several white hunters out in the woods. My ears poked up when I read that because it struck instant familiarity for me. That happened not far from where I am from, and I remember that I was in second grade when it happened. Being reminded of this event made me really curious to learn more about what went on there. I am curious to know if there were interactions between the hunters and this Hmong man and if something triggered the shootings. My mom told me there was a book written about it called the Tree Stand Murders, and she requested it from the library for me.
I rated this book 8.5/10. I thought it was a good combination of general historical information plus the more personal stories of this specific Hmong family and those they interacted with in the United States.
- A Little Life - Hanya Yanaghira
This book was soooo long. Towards the end, I was kind of wondering when it was gonna wrap up. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it--I did enjoy it, and thought it was well-written--but it was just so long. Misery followed by misery followed by misery. A long series of tragedies.
There is so much to say about this book. First of all, it is one of the most trigger-heavy books I have ever read. Possibly the most trigger-heavy book I've read. Basically, every possible trauma you could conceive of not only was present in this book, but was inflicted upon the same single character. It was almost so much, so constantly, that it was borderline unbelievable. A TikTok video about this book popped up for me last week, the one of the comments said that the amount of trauma in this book was "gratuitous," which I thought was a really good way of describing it. It was just almost inconceivable the amount of tragedy and trauma dumped on this single character, over and over and over. There is also apparently some controversy because, apparently (although I've not read any of her other books yet), queer trauma and pedophilia are consistent themes in multiple of her books. I find that kind of...strange. There was definitely a huge focus in this book on pedophilia and sexual trauma, among other traumas. I think I will try to read at least one of her other novels.
All that said, the book was written very well. I found it very eloquent and poignant, despite the heaviness and darkness of the subject matter. I rated it 8.5/10.
- The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
This book had popped up on my TikTok so many times in the past. People raved about it and were also pretty consistently emotionally devastated by it. I think that books that have the capacity to break your heart like that are some of the best books in existence. I find them the most impressive, because it is just incredible to me that an author's words can reach you so genuinely and intimately that you become so emotionally invested in the characters and their lives. To find yourself getting choked up, your throat tightening and your eyes welling up, because of the way someone has told a story, is just such a remarkable feat. I admire most of all authors like Madeline Miller who can tell a story in a way that teaches you something about life and about your relationships, and that forces you to feel things whether you want to feel them or not.
Madeline Miller also wrote Circe, which I reviewed above. Both novels are written in that similar antiquated sort of language of another time, which I loved. The precision of the language used is impressive in and of itself, with each word serving an integral part in its sentence. I thought both Circe and The Song of Achilles were fantastic, although to be honest, I had an inkling that I slightly preferred Circe for most of my reading of the Song of Achilles. The last bit of The Song of Achilles, though, really made it difficult to say which was better. The culmination of The Song of Achilles was indeed heartwrenching, but there were also heartwrenching moments throughout Circe, too, whereas for The Song of Achilles it predominated at the end of the novel.
There were so many touching quotes throughout the book that I did not save to include in my Instagram story review of this book because I did not want to spoil anything for those who had managed to remain oblivious as to the plot of this book so far. But a few of the quotes that I do recall (and which my sister-in-law shared with me as well, as her favorites from reading this book) include:
"He is half of my soul, as the poets say."
"And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone."
"When I am dead, I charge you to mingle our ashes and bury us together."
"[N]ations were the most foolish of mortal inventions. 'No man is worth more than another, wherever he is from.'"
Clearly, I would highly recommend this book, and I rated it 10/10. Absolutely beautiful.
- Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer
I really enjoyed Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. Under the Banner of Heaven didn't hit quite as well for me, but it was still worth reading I'd say, especially for those with a particular interest in history. It was about the history of Mormonism and Mormon fundamentalism, the practice of polygamy, and the religiously-motivated murder of a mother and her infant in Utah. I saw recently that Hulu has a limited series that just came out titled Under the Banner of Heaven and presumably based on this story, so I will probably watch that soon.
I ultimately rated this book 6/10. It was a bit history-heavy & detail-heavy for me. There were so many people referenced on and off throughout the book--historical figures and actors in Mormonism--that I had a hard time keeping track of which narrow-minded man was which, which dude married his fucking stepdaughter (plus like 15 other women), which polygamist came before this one, etc. Nevertheless, it was interesting learning about the formation of Mormonism and how the Mormons essentially established the state of Utah (except for, you know, the fact that there were already Native peoples there) and created their own towns in different states each time a state kicked them out. A good portion of the book focused on Mormon fundamentalism, rather than like moderate Mormonism, so I still don't know that much about the more modern-day, watered-down practice of Mormonism. I understand that there is a tremendous amount of proselytizing, going around to other states and other countries attempting to convert folks, which I don't have a tremendous amount of respect for, personally.
It was interesting reading a little about the Book of Mormon, the religion's fundamental text, and how there are references in the Book of Mormon that simply do not make sense based on the time period professed to be described therein. There are references to animals and pieces of basic "technology" that did not exist in the settings claimed in the book.
The murder discussed in the book was committed by a pair of brothers who were Mormon fundamentalists, having been inspired to commit the murders by the messages they claimed to have been receiving from God.
- Tender is the Flesh - Agustina Bazterrica
I rated this book 6.5/10. It was a fairly horrifying, grotesque subject, but it was also admittedly extremely thought-provoking as someone who recognizes speciesism and is an advocate of animal rights. In this book, the setting is a future society where non-human animals have been almost entirely eradicated in order to extinguish a virus or something that they carried. In order to replace the meat that they had traditionally provided, the society begins breeding and raising genetically modified humans for meat. The main character of the book works in a processing plant/slaughterhouse of such human meat and is entirely complicit in the system despite having this personal indignation about it. He comes across as very hypocritical, very self-righteous, constantly judging those who partake in the consumption of human meat while not only doing the same himself but also being a part of the system that produces it.
There were a lot of interesting different aspects to the story. There was a religious group that the government allowed to sacrifice one of their own at the slaughterhouse--the individual of the religious group would "voluntarily" be killed and processed for meat at the slaughterhouse. There were "scavengers", a group of apparently homeless/wandering, violent and restless outcasts who came regularly to the slaughterhouse to get whatever low-quality scraps they could. There was hunting of humans for sport by the richest of the society.
- The Kissing Bug - Daisy Hernandez
I rated this one 7/10. This was part memoir/part non-fiction about the kissing bug and the virus it has the capacity of carrying and transmitting to humans through its bite. The kissing bug disease can be transmitted from the kissing bug to a human, and oftentimes it lays dormant in a person for decades without causing any issues. It can, however, over time attack a person's heart, essentially deteriorating it to the point of requiring heart transplants. The kissing bug disease is not common in the United States, but it does affect some. It is more common in several South American countries.
- Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens
This apparently is a quite popular book after having been selected by Reese Witherspoon for her book club. I really enjoyed reading it, actually. I rated it 8.5/10. This book is predominantly a mystery, and I tend to not really love mysteries because I often find them really cliche and pandering to the genre, as I mentioned earlier in this post. I didn't feel that way with this book, though. And the movie version of this book is out in theaters right now, so I might have to go watch it.
I thought the descriptions of the setting of the marsh were really interesting and beautiful. It's also always interesting, as a law school graduate and, god-willing, future lawyer, to read the depictions of courtroom scenes. There is a criminal trial that occurs in this book, and the story takes us through the direct and cross-examinations of witnesses, of defense counsel expertly impeaching the witnesses for the prosecution. I would recommend this one.
That's all of them for now, folks. But, as always, I continue reading about a book a week (somewhat less so recently what with my bar examination) so I will be posting another set of books in no time.
