I read six books in May and here are my one-sentence reviews of each book and the rating scale I use.
***** An extraordinary book: one of my Top 15 all-time favorites
**** An outstanding book: highly recommended
*** A good book: worth the read
** An OK read, but you'd be better off finding something else
* Not worth the read; avoid at all costs
The First Muslim, by Lesley Hazleton is my favorite book of the month. If her name sounds familiar, it's because I read and reviewed her book, After the Prophet, a few months ago. Although she wrote After the Prophet first, covering the Sunni/Shia fracture that occurred after the Prophet's death, I would recommend reading the two books in the opposite order that I read them because The First Muslim covers historical events that happened first. After finishing that book, then one should move on to After the Prophet. Nevertheless, both books are phenomenal and highly recommended in whatever order you read them.
Anyway, I read a wildly eclectic selection of books this month and if none of them seems interesting to you, that's okay...just read something in June. Anything that gets you to thinking and is a little outside your normal comfort zone would be great. Your brain will be thrilled because you've expanded it with your reading.
As always, the books are listed by my order of preference, favorite first.
The First Muslim, Lesley Hazleton (**** 1/2)
This extraordinary biography of the Prophet is compelling and fascinating, as well as meticulously researched, and provides the reader with an incredibly balanced and nuanced examination of his astonishing life.
How to Eat, Thich What Hanh (****)
This is the third book I've read in the series and it is definitely my favorite, as it provides a spiritual and zenful meditation on what it means to eat with full mindfulness in order to bring us enlightenment and happiness.
Into the War, Italo Calvino (*** 1/2)
Calvino is one of my favorite authors and this understated volume of three semi-autobiographical (longish) short stories looks at Italy's ill-fated embrace of Mussolini's fascist war and focuses on the teenage narrator's coming of age and the ethical and moral implications of one's behavior during tumultuous times.
People From My Neighborhood, Hiromi Kawakami (***)
This strange book of three-dozen vignettes is a wildly surreal, yet highly engaging, glimpse into the absurdly bizarre lives of the residents in a Japanese neighborhood--this experimental work of "worldly fabulism" might best be appreciated by people like me who've lived in Japan and have experienced the surreal and peculiar quality that one feels sometimes envelops Japanese life.
Grave Sin #14 & Other Stories, Yusi Avianto Pareanom (** 1/2)
A common thread in these quirky stories is the madness sometimes present in Indonesian life--while they are memorable and wonderfully descriptive, the reader is often left scratching their head wondering what each story is really about, as is the case in one of the tales where a woman goes to comfort her ex-husband whose second wife was hacked to death by a neighbor and the body left outside a restaurant in a garbage bag, all this culminating in the woman and her ex-husband engaging in an act of sympathy sex, after which she returns to her home, still estranged from the ex-husband, as if nothing had happened.
(Yes, that review was one sentence.)
Brand New Ancients, Kate Tempest (Erik's Review, ** 1/2; the consensus of the dozen other reviews I read ****)
This book is the text of a 43-page performance poem, and I agree with the author that it should be read aloud and I would suggest, rather than acquiring this book, go to YouTube and listen to the writer perform this poem aloud; though I found it incredibly difficult to listen to Ms. Tempest for the entire 70 minutes as well, this is probably an instance where my lack of affinity for this work (in both written and oral forms) should be disregarded, because perhaps I am too dense to appreciate it.
(Yes, this too was one sentence. It's entirely possible to write 500-word sentences that are perfectly grammatical. Creative punctuation is the key.)
Comments
Post a Comment