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jiayuanc's reviews
274 reviews
All the Colour in the World by C.S. Richardson
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Told in a series of vignettes, in second person, Richardson tells the tale of life of Henry, art history professor. After the loss of his wife, Henry joins the Canadian Army and is posted to Sicily during WW2. Interspersed between the happenings of Henry are art history facts that provide the background for events or key words happening in the foreground.
I've seen this style of writing before in fanfiction and it works because we are already attached and "know" the character that we are inhabiting in the second person. It's much more difficult to pull off with original characters as the second person perspective, especially in this small vignettes chapters style of writing make it much more difficult for us to get to know the character. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this quick read and loved the escape to art history past; the references to history were some of my favourite parts of this book. I thought Richardson did a lovely job of putting this reflective fiction together.
I've seen this style of writing before in fanfiction and it works because we are already attached and "know" the character that we are inhabiting in the second person. It's much more difficult to pull off with original characters as the second person perspective, especially in this small vignettes chapters style of writing make it much more difficult for us to get to know the character. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this quick read and loved the escape to art history past; the references to history were some of my favourite parts of this book. I thought Richardson did a lovely job of putting this reflective fiction together.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Car accident, Death of parent, War
The Other Side of History : Daily Life in the Ancient World by Robert Garland
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.5
Excellent course looking at the lives of "normal" people throughout Roman, Greek, Persian, Ancient Egyptian, Anglo Saxon, Norman, Celtic historical world. There is a bit dated talk (at some point Prof Garland says baby girls are still tossed aside for being girls in "modern" China, which may have been true at the time the course was presented but certainly isn't true in any majority anymore) but otherwise I really enjoyed this course and looked forward to each new lecture. Taking this look at the "normal" lives of people was truly eye opening. Human beings have always been this way, and it's moving to see artifacts like children's toys being similar across all cultures.
Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife by Ariel Sabar
A con man tells his story of sexual assault by a priest during his childhood. As the man is a known forger and liar, the journalist he tells his story to travels to Germany where it supposedly took place to investigate. It is left unclear if this story is true.
informative
fast-paced
3.0
While Sabar's investigative journalist work is clearly well researched and fascinating, I am not convinced of the psychological profile he has put together on Dr Karen King, and to a lesser extent on the forger Walt Fritz.
Re Dr King, Sabar provides us a thorough background on her childhood and early academic career, including being a consultant on The Da Vinci Code film, being careful enough to evade notice of East German gov't officials while studying there on a West German scholarship. Yet I am not entirely moved to see these life events as "proof" that she is so cunning, her whole life built up to advance this forgery. I am seeing many red flags that she as a scholar of such reknown should have seen, many mistakes made (having only 2 friends peer review the work, being late getting scientific testing done, getting friends / family to do the testing, being too eager to break the story without sufficent proof of its authenticity, etc). But it seems more to me that she is a scholar who unfortunately just fell for a forgery, when she really wished it to be true, during a time when her department at HDS was possibly going to lose status with the Yard wishing to open (secular) religious studies themselves. I don't think she had nefarious motivations per se.
Sabar also makes a lot of jumps to conclusions that seem like reaches to me, but definitely make for intrigue at first glance. For example, there is a passage where an English translation of the forged text uses the word "abdicate" rather than the more accurate word "deny", and this is used as part of the proof that the forger had used a specific website to piecemeal together this forged Jesus's Wife papyrus fragment. Sabar then leaps to the conclusion that the forger must have used the word "abdicate" as word play to target Dr Karen "King". Not sure I buy this.
Another example of what feels like just sensationalism:
We move into a deep dive of Walt Fritz the forger and his fetishes, including his running of a hot wife video website. Sabar attempts to link Fritz's "switch" kink persona to the need to essentially suck up to idols, such as Prof Osing while Fritz was in grad school, or to Dr Karen King for the Jesus Wife fragment. Again, I am not buying these psychological profile and linkages betwen these events. Is everyone's fetishes really the answer to why they supposedly do what they do?
Sabar acknowledges this, yet doubles down and says the two things (the making of the forgery and being a hot wife pornographer) are relevant to each other and thus needs to be included in the book because both things involve "wives". This feels lacking to me.
Another example where I was just getting more "Pepe Silvia conspiracy" vibes, this time however at least Sabar acknowledges the mere coincidence.. he says Fritz's first email to Dr King is 114 years to the day after scholars first announced their discovery of Gospel of Mary, and 114 is the number of sayings attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. It feels like all this is just giving credence to Fritz and his supposed smarts to be able to link everything he does to some kind of well thought out plan, when I don't believe he had one.
Overall a quite thrilling read that covers a lot of ground and was difficult to put down even with my above gripes with some of the conclusions.
Re Dr King, Sabar provides us a thorough background on her childhood and early academic career, including being a consultant on The Da Vinci Code film, being careful enough to evade notice of East German gov't officials while studying there on a West German scholarship. Yet I am not entirely moved to see these life events as "proof" that she is so cunning, her whole life built up to advance this forgery. I am seeing many red flags that she as a scholar of such reknown should have seen, many mistakes made (having only 2 friends peer review the work, being late getting scientific testing done, getting friends / family to do the testing, being too eager to break the story without sufficent proof of its authenticity, etc). But it seems more to me that she is a scholar who unfortunately just fell for a forgery, when she really wished it to be true, during a time when her department at HDS was possibly going to lose status with the Yard wishing to open (secular) religious studies themselves. I don't think she had nefarious motivations per se.
Sabar also makes a lot of jumps to conclusions that seem like reaches to me, but definitely make for intrigue at first glance. For example, there is a passage where an English translation of the forged text uses the word "abdicate" rather than the more accurate word "deny", and this is used as part of the proof that the forger had used a specific website to piecemeal together this forged Jesus's Wife papyrus fragment. Sabar then leaps to the conclusion that the forger must have used the word "abdicate" as word play to target Dr Karen "King". Not sure I buy this.
Another example of what feels like just sensationalism:
We move into a deep dive of Walt Fritz the forger and his fetishes, including his running of a hot wife video website. Sabar attempts to link Fritz's "switch" kink persona to the need to essentially suck up to idols, such as Prof Osing while Fritz was in grad school, or to Dr Karen King for the Jesus Wife fragment. Again, I am not buying these psychological profile and linkages betwen these events. Is everyone's fetishes really the answer to why they supposedly do what they do?
Sabar acknowledges this, yet doubles down and says the two things (the making of the forgery and being a hot wife pornographer) are relevant to each other and thus needs to be included in the book because both things involve "wives". This feels lacking to me.
Another example where I was just getting more "Pepe Silvia conspiracy" vibes, this time however at least Sabar acknowledges the mere coincidence.. he says Fritz's first email to Dr King is 114 years to the day after scholars first announced their discovery of Gospel of Mary, and 114 is the number of sayings attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. It feels like all this is just giving credence to Fritz and his supposed smarts to be able to link everything he does to some kind of well thought out plan, when I don't believe he had one.
Overall a quite thrilling read that covers a lot of ground and was difficult to put down even with my above gripes with some of the conclusions.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content
Introduction to the Qur’an by Martyn Oliver
informative
reflective
4.0
Excellent introduction. Especially enjoyed the debunking of "scary" words like jihad, sharia, fatwa etc. Dr Oliver has a fantastic, clear way of speaking. Really enjoyed the female professor's recitations of the Qur'an (as the course prefaces each lecture, these recitations are done in secular sense for teaching purposes); this was not something I had heard preformed in a female voice before.
Just a note that I believe there are some audio editing issues in certain places, often there was a much longer than normal pause which would make me think the lecture was over, but it only happened a few times so I didn't mind it so much.
I would love to hear more from Dr Oliver.
Just a note that I believe there are some audio editing issues in certain places, often there was a much longer than normal pause which would make me think the lecture was over, but it only happened a few times so I didn't mind it so much.
I would love to hear more from Dr Oliver.
Francis of Assisi by William R. Cook, Ronald B. Herzman
informative
reflective
4.0
Had an excellent time listening to these lectures on Francis and the order he founded. Particularly enjoyed the lecture on the Poor Clares, and learning about Clare as her own person, not just as the side character to Francis's story. Drs. Cook and Herzman play off each other's energies very well, looking forward to more from the two of them.
Medieval Myths & Mysteries by Dorsey Armstrong
dark
funny
informative
fast-paced
4.0
Excellent introduction to a variety of medieval topics, mostly myths but there is one lecture on the black death plague which was very interesting. As these are short intro lectures, don't expect anything in depth. Use this as a starting off point to find what topics in the time period interest you! I don't care for Game of Thrones much so the final lecture (lecture on the historical inspirations for GoT) didn't do much for me.
Content Warnings
Minor: Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, War, Pandemic/Epidemic
The Observer by Marina Endicott
There is a horrible scene where Julia is frustrated with life in Medway and takes it out on her dog. She locks the dog outdoors. Later in the day when she opens the doors to the house again for the dog to return, he does not come back. It is revealed that a vehicle hit the dog and the dog is dead. Julia regrets her actions.
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This is a quiet, meandering book about life in small town Alberta, told from the narrator Julia's perspective. Julia moves to fictional small town Medway (a stand-in for Mayerthorpe, Alberta) with her partner Hardy who has just joined the RCMP. They made a deal that Hardy would work for 5 years, while Julia would write, and then they would swap. Julia through the majority of the book is miserable, and I don't even know if she and Hardy truly like each other. Hardy's working hours means they hardly interact, and when they do he isn't allowed to tell her anything about his job. She's out of place, and forced to take various part time jobs to help pay the bills, deviating from their agreement that she would be here just to write.
I finished this book because it was for a book club, otherwise I think I would have DNF'd it. The prose is just slightly off, the cadence and grammar of sentences just slightly wrong, forcing me to re-read in a new tone to understand it. I think (hope?) it's done on purpose (?) to throw us readers off edge, the same way Julia feels a stranger in this small town. An example: "Sometimes when drunk Hardy hears extra well, some preternatural awareness." vs what would make it easier to read: "Sometimes when drunk, Hardy hears extra well, some preternatural awareness."
Towards the end of the book, Julia remarks to herself: "Journalism is not the job of the editor of a rural newspaper, I decided. [...] My real job was to chronicle that mess, its triviality and occasional beauty. To get the names right, to give people something they could put in a drawer for the slide show when their kids get married. To honour the true nature of the place, and not try to impose opinions or advice that only an outsider would offer." And this is a great summary of the book - Julia lists happenings, gives us the names of everyone, even those who never reappear in the novel again, how they all relate to each other; she gives us the small town gossip in bland, weird prose. We read between the lines of her observations and come away thinking she hates Medway, she hates Hardy, she hates her life yet she keeps having children with him. She even says to herself that she thinks about leaving constantly but she can't, she's doing good work letting Hardy vent out at her, helping him take stress off from the job, she can't leave because what about the kid(s).
At the end of Part Two, after she, Hardy and kids finally leave, Julia reflects on life in Medway, how much she loved the people and the small town, and how lovely her new friends are, which feels really artificial because we've just spent the last 95% of the book not really hearing this side of her at all.
I think we were supposed to feel sympathy for her, for Hardy and the force but I could not bring myself to care.
I finished this book because it was for a book club, otherwise I think I would have DNF'd it. The prose is just slightly off, the cadence and grammar of sentences just slightly wrong, forcing me to re-read in a new tone to understand it. I think (hope?) it's done on purpose (?) to throw us readers off edge, the same way Julia feels a stranger in this small town. An example: "Sometimes when drunk Hardy hears extra well, some preternatural awareness." vs what would make it easier to read: "Sometimes when drunk, Hardy hears extra well, some preternatural awareness."
Towards the end of the book, Julia remarks to herself: "Journalism is not the job of the editor of a rural newspaper, I decided. [...] My real job was to chronicle that mess, its triviality and occasional beauty. To get the names right, to give people something they could put in a drawer for the slide show when their kids get married. To honour the true nature of the place, and not try to impose opinions or advice that only an outsider would offer." And this is a great summary of the book - Julia lists happenings, gives us the names of everyone, even those who never reappear in the novel again, how they all relate to each other; she gives us the small town gossip in bland, weird prose. We read between the lines of her observations and come away thinking she hates Medway, she hates Hardy, she hates her life yet she keeps having children with him. She even says to herself that she thinks about leaving constantly but she can't, she's doing good work letting Hardy vent out at her, helping him take stress off from the job, she can't leave because what about the kid(s).
At the end of Part Two, after she, Hardy and kids finally leave, Julia reflects on life in Medway, how much she loved the people and the small town, and how lovely her new friends are, which feels really artificial because we've just spent the last 95% of the book not really hearing this side of her at all.
I think we were supposed to feel sympathy for her, for Hardy and the force but I could not bring myself to care.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury
H.P. Lovecraft's at the Mountains of Madness Volume 2 by Gou Tanabe, 田辺 剛
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Gou Tanabe's Lovecraft adaptions have yet to disappoint.