I somehow keep zipping along, reading six books for the third consecutive month. This month I am trying something different--each of my reviews will simply consist of three bullet points. Trying to keep things concise.
Here is the rating scale I use, followed by my reviews of each book listed in my order of preference.
***** 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
Jing Si Aphorisms, Volume One, by Shih Cheng Yen (****)
*After Shih Cheng Yen became a Buddhist nun, she founded a charity in 1966 which later became the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, its purpose to give aid to the needy and inspire a humanitarian spirit in both the giver and receiver.
*This book is her initial collection of succinct sayings and teachings that offer guidance for living.
*I loved this collection because the sayings are so simple anyone can understand them and they emphasize how to incorporate the Buddha's teachings into our daily lives, even if one isn't a Buddhist.
Ganbatte! The Japanese Art of Always Moving Forward, by Albert Liebermann (****)
*Ganbatte was my favorite word when I lived in Japan and it's an incredible concept that epitomizes the Japanese spirit of resilience and never giving up.
*Lieberman provides the reader with 50 lessons explaining Ganbatte and applying it to typical life scenarios.
*The philosophy of Ganbatte is very practical and useful and Lieberman's entertaining text draws great examples from Japanese culture. Highly recommended.
Bluebeard, by Kurt Vonnegut (*** 1/2)
*Kurt Vonnegut was one of America's most prominent and popular novelists in the 1960s and 70s, but his work is barely noticed or read today.
*When I was in my 20s, I read most of Vonnegut's novels and loved his dark humor and his profound examination of the human condition and its absurdities--and I was lucky enough to personally meet Vonnegut when he gave a lecture in my hometown of Spokane.
*Haven't read Vonnegut in years and years and Bluebeard, a later work of Vonnegut's which I hadn't read before, didn't disappoint; it would take several paragraphs to describe this book, but let me just say that it is a funny, zany, compassionate and profound work that travels in many unexpected directions simultaneously. Try reading a Vonnegut novel if you have the chance--you'll laugh, and you'll think, and you might even be touched.
Homeland and Other Stories, by Barbara Kingsolver (***)
*This collection of short stories was written by Barbara Kingsolver, early in her career (1980s primarily) before she gained fame as a writer in the U.S. (her novels include The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees)
*These stories deal mostly with failed relationships and the perilous nature of loving someone; I have particular affinity for Kingsolver's solidarity with the poor and exploited in American society, which is an important theme in several of these stories.
*The stories in Homeland are extremely well-written and compelling, but a few are somewhat dated and make cultural references to television shows, music, and current events with have faded into complete obscurity, which might make this collection a bit challenging for readers who, unlike me, weren't alive and aware in the 1980s (and even I had to struggle to remember some of the references).
Selected Stories by O'Henry, collected by Terry O'Brien (***)
*O'Henry is the pen name of William Sydney Porter, who wrote commercially-successful short stories from about 1890-1910.
*This collection contains 14 of O'Henry's most well-known stories, including The Gift of the Magi, which has been re-told on television and in movies dozens of times. You might just know the story. A wife has beautiful hair, but no combs for her hair. Her husband has a beautiful watch, but no watch band. Both the husband and wife are sad because they are so poor they can't afford to buy gifts for each other. So, the husband sells his watch to buy combs for his wife, and the wife cuts and sells her hair to buy a band for her husband's watch. When Christmas arrives they make the bittersweet discovery that their kindness has led to a sad new predicament. This surprise/ironic ending is the hallmark feature of literally all of O'Henry's stories.
*O'Henry wrote over 300 short stories in his career and the U.S. award for the year's best short story is named for him. I read several O'Henry stories when I was a kid and enjoyed revisiting these enjoyable tales, but today's reader might find their language outdated and peculiar and might grow weary of the constant barrage of surprise endings, which in the end are no longer surprising and eventually can become predicted by the reader.
Sukra's Eyes & Other Tales, by Gunawan Maryanto (** 1/2)
*Each month I try to read one work of Indonesian literature; this collection containing five short stories is Maryanto's reinterpretations of traditional works of Javanese literature.
*From my perspective, a few of the tales were somewhat incomprehensible to me, though the stories were lively and vividly described.
*I would attribute my low rating to a case of "reader malfunction," as I don't possess the cultural knowledge to process these tales properly. I would recommend picking up any of the other six BTW books I've reviewed as they were all excellent and might be more accessible to non-Indonesians. I think these volumes are impossible to obtain outside Indonesia, but if you are in Jakarta you can find BTW Lontar imprints at Books Kinokuniya, Grand Indonesia Mall.
(I'm sure you've noticed that my bullet points kept getting longer as I was writing. Oh well, I tried to be concise, without much success, but hopefully these reviews still held some slight interest for you.)
Perhaps none of these books seems scintillating. That's OK, just read anything that you find interesting. Being a reader stretches your mind and we could all use a little mind-bending nowadays.
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