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⭐10/10 This is long, but I wanted to post the opening paragraphs of this book because I think it captures so much about it: William Stoner entered the University of Missouri as a freshman in the year 1910, at the age of nineteen. Eight years later, during the height of World War I, he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree and accepted an instructorship at the same University, where he taught until his death in 1956. He did not rise above the rank of assistant professor, and few students remembered him with any sharpness after they had taken his courses. When he died his colleagues made a memorial contribution of a medieval manuscript to the University library. This manuscript may still be found in the Rare Books Collection, bearing the inscription: “Presented to the Library of the University of Missouri, in memory of William Stoner, Department of English. By his colleagues.” An occasional student who comes upon the name may wonder idly who William Stoner was, but he seld...

⭐9/10 This is the third book in the Lonesome Dove series, and much like the second, I think it's awesome but falls short of the original. It's again a pretty thick novel, but one I went through somewhat quickly (for me) because I find these super readable and propulsive despite being pretty slow paced.  This one goes back in time to when Call and Gus, the two main characters of Lonesome Dove, were just young men beginning their lives as Texas Rangers. This is a minor spoiler, but in this one they are young and foolish and sign up for a campaign that was damned from the beginning, so it ends up turning into more of a survival story as they try to cross the plains with no resources, fighting off enemies and terrors of all sorts. It's super compelling! I love survival stories, and this one (like most of McMurtry's works) was inspired by a true story.  I guess one minor complaint I'd have is that McMurtry is intense about his realism, and that commitment oft...

⭐9/10 Everything I thought might be true of Hatchet really was true of Brian's Winter. I read this one in a weekend and found it much easier to get through, pretty much getting rid of all the issues I had, and telling a much more compelling survival story.  It's a funny book because it retcons the last one, and actually Brian wasn't saved and has to survive a winter. Has that ever been done before? Either way I love the choice as it's so much more interesting than having to contrive a motivation for him to go back or something. And now he gets to level up all his skills, and he's already a cool, tough preteen rather than the whiny baby he was to start the first.  Yeah, this book is awesome. I did this one on audio and the reader is absolutely fantastic and reminded me of sitting in a circle listening to the teacher read, except that the teacher is now a very good reader. There are also musical accompaniments and I'm not sure there's a better audi...

⭐8/10 I am certainly one to be won over by nostalgia and revisit my old favorites even though doing so is mostly just a good way to ruin fond memories. Still, I figured I could get through it in a weekend and it also helps me understand what books for kids are like. I mean, this was my absolute favorite as a kid for a good two years, and I must have read this book a dozen times. I was super encouraged when my nephew told me it was also his very favorite for a time.  But I didn't read it in a weekend because this book was rough to start with. The writing style is dramatic and insufferable for the first chapters and not a lot of fun to read. But it gets better throughout and by the end it was pretty clear why I would have liked it as a kid. You really do learn so much about survival reading something like this, and I remember feeling so smart, like I could have done all this if I was lucky enough to be stranded in the Canadian wilderness.  But alas, a child who reads...

⭐10/10 My goodness, what a book. I have said it before, but there are books that inspire me to get writing, and then there are books like this that make me want to give it up altogether. I could never do this! What an impressive example of beautiful prose meeting unfathomable research, brilliant insights with an artful touch.  This is a story about an American missionary family travelling to 1960s Congo to convert a tribal people group that they don't understand. However, it's the overzealous father who drags his family there, but you only get the experience from the POV of his 4 daughters and occasionally his wife. It's definitely a book that focuses on the experiences of women as they process all the hardship and tragedy that unfolds around them.  I will also add that this plotline takes up about 2/3 of the book, and the final third tells the story of the sisters after they leave. I don't think my description sounds super compelling, but this is a brillian...

⭐8/10 This is the holy grail of survival lit, and I read it for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one was just that I like this stuff. It kinda just goes over the major topics - securing food, building shelter, staying warm, seeking aid. It gives practical advice in a pretty simple way, and tells you what to look out for.  I love this stuff but I've never actually camped rough in this way. I want to and hope to, and I guess if I do, I'll know what to expect! But the bigger thing is I find survival so interesting and explains so much of the history of our world and our makeup as humans. That's getting deeper into the weeds than this book does, but there is something so compelling and human when reading about this stuff.  That's really all I got. It's about the best book in this regard, but I imagine most would be more interested in reading a fictional survival story (Hatchet anyone?) or watching the greatest show of all time, Alone. Still, a good way ...

     This is the first fiction book I've ever read that was written by a non-speaking autistic person, which immediately caught my attention. It revolves around Upward Bound, a daycare for adults with disabilities. Each chapter focuses on a different person who is a client there, works there, or is connected to it in some way. The central character is Walter, who seems to be closely based on the author himself, as he is also non-speaking but has a university degree and aspires to be an author. Through the different characters, we get a lot of looks at the people who make up a place like Upward Bound, as well as how it's run.     There's so much about this book that I found revelatory and thought-provoking. Through Walter we get to learn about the inner life of someone who isn't able to communicate in traditional ways, having to rely on a spelling board and someone trained in that form of communication, but because Upward Bound doesn't have the resources to suppl...

⭐9/10 This is now my second McCarthy book and I am a believer. What a bold, unique talent he is, and I wish I would have gotten to his stuff earlier. It's everything I like in books, a literary look at big-picture stuff like the nature of violence and greed, the soul of a nation, death and morality, all told in nice prose that can turn on the jets when needed.  This is also the second book in a row I read which was adapted into an all-time great movie, so I had a bit more context with which to understand it. Unlike the Godfather, I think there is a bit more going on under the surface. Even when a major character basically has a multi-chapter monologue at the end, I still wasn't totally sure what this book was trying to say, but it gives you plenty to think about and I think questions are always more valuable in art than answers.  I think this book works on a lot of levels with an engrossing plot and vivid characters. Chigurh is an all-time movie villain, but his ro...

⭐9/10 It's been a long time since I've read a theology book, but I decided to visit one from my good friend Greg Boyd. Nobody has had a bigger influence on the way I think about the Bible than Greg, and I will admit that I am so familiar with his theology that very little in this book jumped out to me. I've heard pretty much every argument he makes here in some lecture or sermon or podcast at some point, but still it was good to catch up on these points.  This book is an attempt to make sense of the horrifying violence of the Old Testament. Greg's main argument is that the God that appears in the Old Testament often seems completely inconsistent with his character revealed in the person of Jesus, so how do we reckon with it? He goes through some of the options that scholars have put forth, ranging from disregarding the OT to attempting to justify the violence as a form of righteous love, but has trouble accept theories similar to the former because Jesus him...

⭐7.5/10 This is a collection of Japanese manga short horror stories. So ya know, a bit different than my usuals! I should also mention that I got this free at a little library in Toronto which is super cool, and I read it pretty quickly.  It's super hard for me to know how to rate this. I have zero context with which to place it. I had heard the name Junji Ito before, but this is actually the first manga of any type that I've ever read. On the one hand, I really enjoyed it and was always happy to go through them, flying through each story in fifteen minutes. On the other, I can't say I felt anything too strongly throughout, and certainly never felt, like, scared. And yet I found these stories quite compelling, some of them super creepy and twisted and like they could be the backdrop for an awesome novel or movie. But my more prevailing thought was that rather than being great short stories, that these were beginnings of ideas that needed to better fleshed out. J...

⭐8/10 I think like a lot of people, I didn't realize this was a book before it was a movie, but I'd become interested after Tim's glowing review. I recently came across it at a thrift store and flipped through a few pages while I waited for someone, and then I couldn't put it down! I think that's a pretty rare feeling, but I simply couldn't leave the store without it -- and I feel like that's something a Don would say.  I mostly had that same feeling all through reading it. I think Puzo is a super talented writer and has a bunch of timeless lines here. As Tim mentioned, the movie is a super faithful adaptation and most of the best lines there were here first. The story is of course super compelling and then there are those great literary elements, the classic tale of the fall of man. I mean yeah, it's well-written, it's got plenty of sex and violence, has some literary strength and an examination of the human condition. This is the quinte...

⭐7/10 This title is misleading because this is actually a book that goes through the entire medieval calendar (which I suppose is in the subtitle). I thought it would be more about habits and survival tactics of medieval people, but it's really more about holidays and festivals throughout the year.  No real strong opinion here. It's a good book that's super well researched. It uses a ton of first-hand accounts and so there's lots of quotes with beautiful Anglo-Saxon passages, but this book was too niche even for me.  It was sorta one of those books where I knew most of the more interesting points, and probably won't remember the more obscure ones.  Still, it was short and I never really minded going back to it. Not my favorite book on medieval history and definitely not one I would recommend as an introduction to the subject, but a good one nonetheless. 

     This is a very recent release that I was interested in primarily because of the great title and cover, and obviously I have a particular interest in China. The premise of a book that combines Chinese history and magical realism also intrigued me, and I thought this was a good book to challenge myself a bit with.      This book is made up primarily of 3 points of view in 3 different time periods.  We start in 2017, when Qianze receives word that her father, who left the family when she was 14, is looking for her. He's confused and haunted, and she gives in and houses him. Every day he rambles about his past and a family curse, but can't quite remember what he needs to tell her. Then we get sections from her father Weihong's pov of growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, during which he discovers the violence he's capable of. Finally, we get the story of Weihong's mother Ming during the Japanese invasion, growing up as an unwanted daught...

⭐N/A Moby Dick is now also my white whale, and like Captain Ahab my zeal for finishing this novel grew and grew but was ultimately left unfulfilled. Unlike Ahab, I have the power of an online blog where I can process my thoughts and thus leave my white whale in peace. I thought this would be the perfect book for me, with all the sea-faring qualities I loved from The Wager, combined with the literary adventure qualities I've come to love from books like Lonesome Dove. I pick up a classic now and then, and although this one is nearing 200 years old, I was initially sold. I found it pretty approachable and even entertaining, following the story of Ismael as he gets wrapped up in an epic revenge story.  Eventually, though, i had to admit to myself that I was no longer enjoying or really even comprehending this story. I know it's dumb to review a DNF, but i spent dozens of hours over three months trying to finish this novel and developed a lot of opinions. I would say th...

⭐7/10 I loved Collins as a teenager but was pretty skeptical I'd still enjoy her writing given my advanced years and curmudgeonous nature. It didn't take me long to be convinced otherwise. I think she's pretty talented and creates compelling backdrops to tell interesting stories within her genre. I thought it was a pretty bold choice for a blockbuster YA writer to tell a story from the perspective of the villain, and I think it mostly paid off.  Most people say that this book was kinda average but the next one was better. After the first few chapters I was ready to come in hot and say that this was her best book. I thought the examination into the mind of an evil man was well done with consideration of his own trauma and insecurities. But midway through I kinda just stopped thinking that. This book was set up to be better than it was, never really exploring the ideas it sets up beyond some surface level observations. I'm not sure if it's a limiation of C...

⭐ 9/10 First off, check out that cover art. Amazing. Secondly, 3 book reviews in a row, look at me go! Amazing what a vacation affords you time to do. I have reviewed this book before, probably on the old spreadsheet, and I have no idea what I gave it there, but I loved this. I could not put it down, and read it in two days, completely absorbed. I have a memory of it being a bit of a slog, at the very least less exciting than Dune, so I loved getting a chance to look at this one with fresh eyes. It's a tired take to say Paul Atreides is "not actually the good guy", but this book brings this fully into view. I would have read this the first time probably 10 years ago, and while I shockingly remembered many scenes, my reaction to them was very different. This book is basically about a conspiracy or 3 factions, representing 3 groups, plotting against Paul, who has become the emperor of the galaxy, whose followers are enacting a religious war across that galaxy. I would have...

⭐ 9/10 An odd score for something I have no complaints about. I flew through this pleasantly short book in about 2 days, and loved every moment. We are in the perspective of a young girl trying to avenge the death of her father, following her as she gets herself in danger but has no fear or filter. She is witty, intelligent, and I had the thought that finally I am seeing a precocious youngster I don't hate! She is defined by a sense of righteous justice, and she refuses to even acknowledge her age, always haggling with adults and getting her way. The caveat is that this book is actually told by Mattie Ross in the future, but still, her voice is very fresh, especially compared to the cookie-cutter manic-pixie-dream-girls of another author I read too much of. The plot is simple, the main three characters are memorable, and the charm is unavoidable. When danger comes you can really feel the vulnerability of Mattie, despite her defiance all book long, and the safety of these tougher m...

⭐8/10 I have given basically every book of Red Rising the same score, and while I think this is maybe the best one it also took me 6 months to read. It is massive, it is dense, and when I finally got some momentum on it earlier this year I finally finished it. This is book 5, the second book of the second trilogy, and it is very much the Empire Strikes Back of this second arc. Things are indeed dark, and it goes out of its way to be as gnarly as possible. But let me take a step back. The first third of this book is a siege of a planet told from two perspectives. It is pretty incredible, the scale is massive, but even 5 books in I can barely keep track of going on. I've read these books over too long of a span, and when character names are mentioned I know they are significant but I can't remember why, or what their allegiance currently is. There are a million moments in this book that I'm sure would hit harder on re-read, but the universe is so big, the names so weirdly ob...

    KJ Charles never misses, and this is another great mix of historical, mystery, and romance, which is one of my favourite combos.  Zeb tries to stay away from his family, because they're all horrible and consider him a failure because he can't hold down a job. But a distant uncle convinces him to come for a stay in the family faux-Gothic manor in Dartmoor, and to his horror, all of his terrible relatives are there, and so is his ex-lover who hates him for losing him his job. The uncle declares that he will choose which of the men will be marrying his ward and get the inheritance. Zeb isn't interested, but he's stuck there because of the mist, and tensions rise between the family members, especially when they start seeing ghosts and messages appear on the walls.      I love what KJ Charles did with the setting here. It's set in the early 1900s, but the manor was built to resemble a Gothic manor. It's also set in the moors with an unpredictable fog, ...

    I've started the new year strong with lots of 4 and 5-star reads, but not counting rereads, these were the ones that stood out as new favourites!      This was as good as I expected it to be after reading two Juliet Marillier books last year, then deciding to go back to the beginning of her most popular series, first published in 1999. It's a fairy tale retelling, and has this lush, meandering, detailed, atmospheric feel that I adored, even though a lot of those things are not usually my thing. It's also very long, but just like the other Marillier books I've read, it doesn't feel like long and deserves the page count.      Sorcha begins the book as a young girl in medieval-ish Ireland. She's the youngest in her family with six older brothers and a distant father who is always away defending his territory from the Britons. Her idyllic childhood ends when she uses her healing skills to help a young Briton soldier, and again when her father rema...