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.
First, take two slices of the finest theology, then cram it skyhigh with Shakespeare and cozy witchcraft and experimental cartoons and 80s-set horror and classic Southern fiction and genre-establishing manga.
Deeeeeelicious.
.
102) 3rd, 4th Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction by Daniel Becerra, finished October 6
First, the editorial staff doesn't agree with itself. The cover says 3rd, 4th Nephi but the text consistently says 3–4 Nephi. Make a decision. (Also they botched the footnote numbering in chapter four, as long as I'm complaining.)
Anyway, another rocksolid entry in the series. I think the biggest takeaway for me here is the careful explanation of why, as I've long felt, certainty is just as much the enemy of faith as unbelief. We cannot learn more of Christ is we are certain we know all there is to know.
And how much there is to know!
Becerra's style is a bit circular and he's big into early Church theologians, but I think that's great. The variety of styles in these books is a big part of what makes them exciting to read and challenging to digest.
Anyway, although this book felt less tight to me—like it could be twenty pages shorter—as I look through it, there's nothing I'd like to cut. And so I think it's just that Becerra's voice is less inviting to me, stylewise? But it hardly matters because I gained much from reading him. So I guess that's on me.
Just—go get the box set.
about two weeks
103) My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix, finished October 10
First, I never would have guessed Grady was a man. The novel was recommended to me by a woman and the main characters are all girls and I never doubted it's female cred. It wasn't until I saw the author photo that I even wondered. But I wasn't certain until I hit Wikipedia.
I know I was just saying that I don't buy devil-worship/possession/whatever stories, but I trust this recommender's taste (example) and somehow I felt I should at least give it a shot.
I'm not big into most teen novels and movies because I feel about teens behaving badly much as a feel about exorcism stories: they may be more believable but they're about as alien to my experience and I find them irritating.
Plus, it takes foreeever to get to the exorcism stuff.
But I kept reading and I'm glad I did. The slow expansion of the horror makes it more reasonable. And when the exorcism does finally arrive, it made me understand the appeal, to some pious people, of believing in powerful and dangerous demons. I got it.
And then things take a different direction and the book goes on another sixty years in an extended denouement that was kinda wonderful and one of the best paeons to friendship I can remember reading.
So another good recommendation.
If you need a Halloween book that doesn't overdue the horror and ends in beauty, it's an option.
a couple weeks
104) The Moviegoer by Walker Percy, finished October 11
I first heard of this book (and this author) thanks to a book my wife gave me in which various writers and artists and designers and such talk about their ideal bookshelf and what books are on it. The Moviegoer appears on more shelves than any other.
Since then, I've learned that Percy is a regional literary hero with his own "Days" and everything.
One early blurb I read said it's like Catcher in the Rye for adults and yeah, it kind of is. In part because I didn't hate it, but also because it's the same midcentury malaise but dealt with by an adult to has actually experienced real stuff and has actual reasons for being disconnected from the world yet carries on all the same.
I was disappointed that the titular character didn't go to more movies or rely upon them more often as metaphor, but ah well.
For most of the book, I really didn't think it was going anywhere. That it would end where it began. It wasn't until the closing pages that it did go somewhere—largely in the short epilogue, making it the most significant an finest epilogue of my acquaintance.
I can't imagine doing this book with teenager, but I love how it's sort of an anti-Pride and Prejudice (which I did just do with teenagers). No one marries for love here. Or at least not for love that sweeps you off your feet and is bold and heroic. And yet marriage is so vitally, vitally important. And it's only by discovering this and putting all one's chips on its red that life becomes manageable or even approaching meaningful.
Modern life can largely feel hollow and circular and pointless, but people are the secret. And nothing is more people than giving your entire life to another person—and accepting theirs in return.
But again, that's all the last eight pages. So spoiler warning, I guess.
let's estimate five months ignoring the near year prior in which I read the first couple pages over and over
105) Bed-Knob and Broomstick by Mary Norton, finished October 12
Historically being two separate books, The Magic Bed Knob and Bonfires and Broomsticks. But I like them as a single volume.
If you, like me and David Sims, love the Disney adaptation, you may be a little startled by how little the books have in common. Miss Price and the three children and some countryside placenames are intact, but among the characters that are missing you may include these that I just slopped together:
They feel important, at least kinda, but there are no Nazis or even but a mention of the war.
But although none of those things are there,the Disney folks used much of the books' DNA just scrambled into new ways. There is a false magician named Emelius, but he's not Emelius Browne and really they have almost nothing else in common including birth century. So when you enter the books, plan on an entirely new experience.
And a delightful one! Some midcentury elements haven't aged perfectly, but largely this is a lovely jaunt into old (c. 1950) England with some magic and a flying bed. I mean—what's not to love?
Mary Norton's prose style is friendly and open and slightly wry. And I guess you should just go put this on hold at your local library and we can talk again later.
two or three weeksish
106) Psycho II by Robert Bloch, finished October 17
First, I have no idea if this book is at all similar to the movie of the same name.
Second, although I'm a Robert Bloch fan of sorts, I've never read a novel of his before.
Third, I'm gonna spoil things starting with the very next sentence.
This novel is wild—no sooner is a character introduced in the opening chapters than they are murdered. Bloch makes you like someone—or at least understand them—and then Norman Bates kills them. One nun then another nun then a hitchhiker and before we get to page one hundred, every surviving character from the first novel (I'm basing this on my knowledge of the movie and of the narration of Psycho II) is dead at his hand.
Then we go to Hollywood and we have a long, long stretch in which we anticipate disaster but it never quite happens. Until the final pages.
And then is revealed the great twist of this book (which I half suspected but didn't believe): not one but two people have become Norman the same way he became his mother. One of this is set up well. The other is a bit of slight-of-hand and cheaty but the book was a fun ride so I forgive it.
The book is also very 1982 by which I mean it seems to be arguing that the whole world is psycho at this point and Norman-like characters are everyone. And may be any of us with the right twist of circumstances.
Bloch's prose style is very clean, not super flashy. He does have a few turns of phrase he's clearly proud of, like describing someone's decor as less contemporary than a temporary con, but mostly he's interested in moving us quickly through the story without needless distractions. He's a good host. Cynical to his core but he'll show you a good time.
thursday to thursday
107) Osamu Tezuka's Original Astro Boy: 3 by Osamu Tezuka, finished October 19
As I started reading this, I was certain I had read it before. Not so, but I have read a book inspired by it and I'm guessing there were enough similarities that they seemed identical.
No wonder "The Greatest Robot on Earth" (which makes up most of this volume) is a confirmed classic. It starts off as just one bad robot dueling (and destroying) a bunch of good robots, but it develops into so much more than that. The conclusion's a bit silly but the development of the various robots' personalities and ethical systems are fascinating and even moving. It's a terrific story.
like three days
108, 109, 110) The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare, finished October 22, 22, 23
I too often make the mistake of rushing through the plays a little too quickly. The semesters are just oo darn short.
It'll be interesting to see how the conversation develops over the following days. It's a strange play. I have lots of questions myself.....
six, six, six schooldays
111) Here by Richard McGuire, finished October 23
I really, really thought I'd read this before, but I can find no record of it and, although I remember the concept, I didn't really get that frisson of recognition. So I guess not.
Anyway, it's a terrific exercise. And I'm very excited about the movie. Zemeckis has made some of my favorite movies (eg, Back to the Future) and some I have no love for (eg, Forrest Gump) but no matter how successful the movie is, I'm just superexcited that such a strange idea is being put out by a big studio with a decent budget and is getting actual ads promoting it. Even if it's a confused mess, I'm there.
If you're unfamiliar with it, the idea is the camera never moves. Every page, the reader sees the same spot from the same angle. Doesn't matter if it's three billion years ago or three hundred years in the future, or anywhere inbetween. You're looking at the same spot from the same angle. And the various time periods are interwoven. It's Tralfamadorean, you might say.
Anyway, it's a cool exercise and would reward rereading. And certainly even if you don't end up liking it, even if you find it a confused mess, you won't regret stepping into this room.
one swimming lesson
112) Sequential Drawings: The New Yorker Series by Richard McGuire, finished October 25
Over five hundred pages, but only one drawing on every other pages. These are McGuire's spot illustrations, I assume published in this form in 2016 to capitalize on the success of Here?
Anyway, it's a cool little book. Two of its dimensions are roughly those of a Gideon New Testament—but it's three-plus times as thick.
Anyway. It's a lot of page to turn but fun to fly through.
under and hour, probably, even with breaks
113) Mormon: A Brief Theological Introduction by Adam S. Miller, finished October 26
A brilliant work of theology. And it has the advantage of being written by Miller who is a beautiful writer.
A few of the key ideas he finds through reading Mormon as a manual to the end of the world:
→ 1. God is always destroying the world and building it again. He calls this re/creation.
→ 2. We sin when we fight against the world being destroyed. Instead, we are called upon to sacrifice the end of all things.
→ 3. Mormon was called to his position because he was a sober child and quick to observe. We too are required to witness the end of all things—and to accept it.
→ 4. To judge (we are told not to do) is to give people what they deserve. The judge righteously (as we are told to do) is to give people what they need.
→ 5. This is the work of justice. And it is motivated by love. (And it explains the parable of the laborers.)
Anyway, it's a book for our time. Now that our planet is about to undergo permanent changes and billionaires are conceding to Trump before he's even elected.
twenty days
2024 × 10 = Bette Davis being Bette Davis
001) Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished January 1
002) The Complete Peanuts: 1977 – 1978 by Charles M. Schulz , finished January 6
003) The Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman et al, finished January 10
004) Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished January 17
005) Touched by Walter Mosley, finished January 19
006) Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer, finished January 20
007) Evergreen Ape: The Story of Bigfoot by David Norman Lewis, finished January 24
008) What Falls Away by Karin Anderson, finished February 1
009) Peanuts Jubilee: My Life and Art with Charlie Brown and Others by Charles M. Schulz, finished February 3
010) Legends of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished February 3
011) Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, finished February 3
012) The Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, February 9
013) Things in the Basement by Ben Hatke, February 10
014) A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz by Stephen J. Lind, finished February 10
015) 1st Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction by Joseph M. Spencer, finished February 10
016) Dendo by Brittany Long Olsen, finished February 11
017) The Ten Winners of the 2023 Whiting Awards, finished February 12
018) The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life edited by Andrew Blaune, finished February 17
019) Do Not Disturb Any Further by John Callahan, finished February 17
020) Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke, finished circa February 19
021) 2nd Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction by Terryl Givens, February 24
Let's start with the untimely deaths
022) The Life and Death of King John by William Shakespeare, finished February 28
022) Mighty Jack and the Goblin King by Ben Hatke, finished February 29
023) Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez, finished March 4
024) Millay by Edna St. Vincent Millay, finished March
025, 026) The Life and Death of King John by William Shakespeare, finished March 6, 8
027) Murder Book by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, finished March 11
028) A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
029) The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby, finished March 15
030) Karen's Roller Skates by Ann M. Martin and Katy Farina, finished March 18
Four comics could hardly be more different
031) The Sandman: The Wake by Neil Gaiman et al, finished March 18
032) The World of Edena by Mœbius, finished March 23
033) Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller, the Man Who Created Nancy by Bill Griffith, finished March 23
034) Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished March 23
Jacob says be nice and read comics
035) Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction by Deidre Nicole Green, finished March 24
036) Starter Villain by John Scalzi, finished March 27
037) Mister Invincible: Local Hero by Pascal Jousselin, finished March 30
038) The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, finished March 30
039) Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh, finished April 1
040) The Super Hero's Journey by Patrick McDonnell, finished April 5
041) The Stranger Beside Me: Updated Twentieth Anniversary Edition by Ann Rule, finished April 9
042) Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy, finished April 13
043) Enos, Jarom, Omni: a brief theological introduction by Sharon J. Harris, finished April 25
044) The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson, finished April 27
045,046,049) The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht, finished April 29, 30; May 3
047) The Children's Bach by Helen Garner, finished April 30
048) No. 1 with a Bullet by Sehman/Corona/Hickman/Wands, finished May 2
050) Over Seventy by P. G. Wodehouse, finished May 7
051) The Happy Shop by Brittany Long Olsen, finished May 16
052) Shades of Fear, finished May 21
053) Love Poems in Quarantine by Sarah Ruhl, finished May 21
And a vibrator makes it five dozen.....
054) The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt, finished May 25
055) Mosiah: A Brief Theological Introduction by James E. Faulconer, finished May 26
056) Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirstin Bakis
057) 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write: On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater by Sarah Ruhl, finished June 1
058) Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary by Timothy Snyder, finished June 4
059) Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl, finished June 6
060) The Next Room, or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl, finished June 8
And with Ursula, 69
061) The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty, finished June 10
062) Blood of the Virgin by Sammy Harkham, finished June 11
063) Mulysses by Øyvind Torseter, finished June 11
064) Between the River and the Bridge by Craig Ferguson, finished June 12
065) Cranky Chicken by Katherine Battersby, finished June 12
066) Mile End Kids Stories by Isabelle Arsenault, finished June 12
067) Tiny Titans: Field Trippin' by author, finished June 14
068) Brief Theological Introductions: Alma 1–29 by Kylie Nielson Turley, finished June 16
069) Words Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished June 16
Numbers 70 through 75
070) Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth by A. O. Scott, finished June 17
071) Alice, Let's Eat by Calvin Trillin, finished June 20
072) My Lovely Vigil Keeping by Carla Kelly, finished June 21
073) Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre, finished July 9
074) The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne, finished July 11
075) Best. Movie. Year. Ever. How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raftery, finished July 16
Comics soup and rice
076) I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 by Lauren Tarshis and Corey Egbert (et al), finished July 16
077) Skull Cat and the Curious Castle by Norman Shurtliff, finished July 18
078) Epileptic by David B., finished July 19
079) Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld by Shannon and Dean Hale, and Asiah Fulmore; finished July 30
080) Fadeaway by E. B. Vickers, finished August 2
081) You're Dad by Liz Climo, finished August 4
082) Meanwhile...A Comic Shop Anthology, finished August 5
Lobsters are vermin you eat
084) Lobster Is the Best Medicine by Liz Climo, finished August 7
085) Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and Leuyen Pham, finished August 12
086) Alma 30–63: A Brief Theological Introduction by Mark A. Wrathall, finished August 18
087) The Pearl by John Steinbeck, August 20
088) The Woman in the Woods and Other North American Stories, finished August 20
089) Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber, finished August 23
090) Radiant Vermin by Philip Ridley
Six books closer to the end of all things.
091) After the Blast by Zoe Kazan, finished August 30
092) The Nether by Jennifer Haley, finished August 31
093) Mr Burns, a post-electric play by Anne Washburn, finished August 31
094) The Voynich Manuscript ed. by Raymond Clemens, finished September 4
095) Brass Sun by Ian Edgington and I. N. J. Culbard, finished September 5
096) Termush by Sven Holm, finished September 7
Ally Condie kills it (+2 more)
097) The Unwedding by Ally Condie, finished September 13
098) Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer, finished September 18
099) Helaman: A Brief Theological Introduction by Kimberly Matheson Berkey, finished September 21
The end of one century and the beginning of another
100) Motor Girl: Real Life by Terry Moore, finished October 2
101) The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare, finished October 5
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