The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

 

8/10

I read this one 4.5 months ago. It was my last book of 2024, so I'm getting closer to getting caught up on this blog once and for all. I really liked this one. I'm a sucker for books about the unjust sufferings people have to go through, like Grapes of Wrath or Les Miserables. Something about them just lets you connect with the characters in a more compassionate way. I found this book to be incredibly fascinating. It was super interesting learning about the sufferings of the working class in the Chicago meatpacking plants around the early 1900's. Sinclair paints such a clear picture that you feel pretty immersed in the time and place of the story. As it turns out, this book is one of the more impactful books of all time in that it eventually led to changes in more effective oversight in ensuring the proper sanitation of food production. Which, I think, is not quite what Sinclair was aiming for. I think he was hoping to draw more attention to the unjust nature of wages and labor more so than food sanitation. Sinclair said about this book that he aimed for the public's heart but instead hit it in the stomach. Anyway, really good book. The only thing keeping it from a 9/10 or even possibly a 10/10 is the over-the-top socialism toward the end combined with the out of place, seemingly never-ending, socialism speech at the conclusion of the book. I like my socialism in more subtle doses, Grapes of Wrath style, than the in-your-face socialism presented here. Too preachy and off-putting which I felt spoiled a lot of the message he had effectively established through the characters and story. Still enjoyed this one overall even though I didn't decide to become a commie because of it. 

The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Stories by Henry James

 

6/10

I read this one about 5 1/2 months ago. First off, The Turn of the Screw is a pretty sweet title for a story, but I didn't like the story as much as a few others which were slightly better. This is my first time getting back to Henry James after the disappointment of The Bostonians from like 7 years ago. I can't quite put my finger on Henry James. He is clearly a talented writer, but something about it just doesn't quite do it for me. Doesn't satisfy me in the way that Dickens or Thomas Hardy do, just to name two examples. That being said, I liked these short stories more than the previously mentioned novel, but that was a low bar to overcome. Here are the stories: (1) An International Episode which was a 7/10; (2) Daisy Miller, another 7/10; (3) The Aspern Papers was my favorite at 8/10; (4) The Altar of the Dead was 5/10; (5) The Turn of the Screw didn't quite do it for me and gets a generous 6/10; (6) The Beast in the Jungle with another generous 4/10. As you can see, I enjoyed the first three stories more than the last three, so I was initially fairly excited that Henry James was proving more enjoyable until the last three stories where it fizzled out and I couldn't wait to finish the book so I could move on to something else. The Aspern Papers was a great surprise as I had never heard of it and found it very interesting. It's about a biographer of a famous poet, Jeffrey Aspern, who goes incognito to an old lady's secluded mansion who had once had a fling with the poet when they were young. The biographer is trying to secure some of Aspern's papers, letters between the young couple from many years before, that no one has ever seen. Pretty fascinating how he went about trying to secure those papers on the sly without being discovered as a biographer of Aspern. It's a slow burn but was interesting and well done throughout. I'll probably need to take another lengthy break from James but hopefully not a 7-year break like last time. I own several of his highly regarded novels but just need to muster the courage to launch into it. Maybe in a few years.

The Mortal Messiah - Book 2 by Bruce R. McConkie

 

8/10

I read this one almost 6 months ago. Same rating as Book 1 even though I think I liked this one slightly better. But the main reason I liked it better is because the material being covered, Jesus' actual ministry, is more interesting than the previous book. McConkie's style is still largely scriptural citation and quotation, which is fine. Most of the money quotes come from the early great books about Christ from guys like Farrar, Edersheim, and Talmage. Still a good, worthwhile book.

Quotes:

"Where members of the Church are concerned, there is a very close connection between manifestations of healing grace and the forgiveness of sins. When the elders administer to faithful saints, the promise is: 'And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.' (James 5:15.) The very fact that a member of the kingdom has matured in the gospel to the point that he has power through faith in Christ to be healed, means that he also has so lived that he is entitled to have his sins remitted." 

"The hand of Jesus was not polluted by touching the leper's body, but the leper's whole body was cleansed by the touch of that holy hand. It was even thus that He touched our sinful nature, and yet remained without spot of sin." - Farrar

"The Judaism of that day substituted empty forms and meaningless ceremonies for true righteousness; it mistook uncharitable exclusiveness for genuine purity; it delighted to sun itself in the injustice of an imagined favouritism from which it would fain have shut out all God's other children; it was so profoundly hypocritical as not even to recognise its own hypocrisy; it never thought so well of itself as when it was crushing the broken reed and trampling out the last spark from the smoking flax; it thanked God for the demerits which it took for virtues, and fancied that He could be pleased with a service in which there was neither humility, nor truthfulness, nor loyalty, nor love." - Farrar

"[W]hen the Risen Lord ministered among the Nephites[,] [b]e it noted that he spake not unto them in parables; they were a people prepared for their King."

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

 

8/10

I read this one about 6.5 months ago. Obviously, a solid book. We all know the movie is great so it was expected that the book would be enjoyable. It was fun getting a little deeper look at this original story and seeing where things were different from the movie. It had a whole lot of scientific explanations throughout which was fine, but I could have used a tad bit more excitement and action like there is in the movie. Sometimes it just felt like the setup was drawn out and the payoff not as big as it could have been in parts. Probably another book that suffers from the unavoidable bias I have when I already know the story and unconsciously judge the book against the movie. Oh well. It was an enjoyable book and fun to read. I need to read more Crichton.

Michael Crichton books ranked:

1. The Great Train Robbery
2. Jurassic Park

The Runaway Jury by John Grisham

 

9/10

I read this one seven months ago. I liked it a lot. I think the premise of the story is a great one and made the book super interesting throughout, the idea of someone infiltrating a jury and having influence there. I also saw the movie many moons ago back when it came out and really liked it which probably had some influence on how much I enjoyed this book. One part that I could have done without was the extreme length Grisham went at some parts to get into all the scientific explanations about the harms of smoking. It almost felt like he did a ton of research for this book and didn't want to waste a bunch of things he learned so he just stuffed some of it in the book instead of just summarizing the findings. But it wasn't too big of a deal, obviously, since I still gave it 9 out of 10. Good book. Grisham hasn't missed for me yet.

Grisham books I've read, ranked:

1. The Runaway Jury
2. A Time to Kill
3. The Pelican Brief
4. The Client

Like Him: A Thoughtful, Intentional Pursuit to Becoming As Christ Is

 

8/10

I read this a little over five months ago. Gave this one a looksie because my old man is one of the contributing authors, bringing the book home with the final chapter in the book, smashing it out of the park as per usual. His was the best one, obvy. It was a good book overall and I liked the concept. It's a collection of short chapters on 12 core attributes of Christ: Godliness, Hope, Brotherly Kindness, Patience, Temperance, Virtue, Love & Charity, Diligence, Faith, Humility, Knowledge, and Obedience. There were two chapters from different authors per attribute. So my Dad's was on obedience and he tells a cool story about the "Wherever He Leads Me" painting of Christ overlooking Jerusalem before entering knowing full well that he will soon be laying down his life, but he will be obedient and go wherever he is led. There were some other good chapters in there as well, such as the one from S. Michael Wilcox who always crushes it, and Susan Easton Black, among others. The artwork is a big part of the book. I'm not much of an art guy. Some of the art seemed pretty good but a lot of it was of a certain style that was "different" and not in a good way. But that's from a guy who knows nothing about art, so take that for what it's worth.

Aftermath: Life Debt by Chuck Wendig

 

8/10

I read this one a little less than five months ago. I ended up liking this one pretty well. It got off to a slow start, mostly because it had been a few years since I had read the first book in the series, and I couldn't really remember who was who. But the storyline ended up being quite interesting and a major upgrade to the first Aftermath story. Some classic Star Wars characters play a major part in this book, such as Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca, so that was fun. I also wasn't as bugged by Wendig's writing style as I was with the first one. Glad I stuck with this series and am now looking forward to finishing the series off, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.

Star Wars book rankings:

1. Lost Stars

2. Aftermath: Life Debt

3. Battlefront: Twilight Company

4. Aftermath

The Duel and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov

 

6/10

I read this one a little less than six months ago. It's been a while since I've read Russian literature, and this was my first experience with Chekhov. This has six short stories: The Duel; My Wife; Murder; The Black Monk; Terror; and The Two Volodyas. The Duel was easily my favorite, probably a solid 8/10, and I was very satisfied with my intro to Chekhov. But the others weren't nearly as good, in my opinion. My Wife and The Black Monk were fine. Murder was ok. And for the life of me, after less than six months, I can't remember almost anything about Terror or The Two Volodyas, which likely means that I had checked out at that point and was ready to move on from Chekhov until another time. Also, they were super short, 12 and 11 pages respectively. Far too short to really be worthwhile. The Duel was 100 pages while My Wife was 40, Murder 30, and The Black Monk 30. In most cases, I do prefer a story that is long enough to allow it to develop. And that's the case here where the longer the story, the more I ended up liking it.

Quotes from The Duel:

"I have an uncle, just an ordinary parish priest, whose faith is such that when he goes into the fields to pray for rain during a drought, he takes his umbrella and a leather coat to avoid a soaking on the way home. There's faith for you!"

"'The boat's tossed back,' he thought; 'it makes two movements forward and one back, but the oarsmen don't give up, they swing the oars tirelessly and have no fear of the high waves. The boat moves on and on, now it's disappeared from view. In half an hour the rowers will be able to see the ship's lights clearly and within an hour they'll be alongside the ladder. Life is like that ... As they search for truth people take two paces forward and one back. Suffering, mistakes and life's tedium throw them back, but thirst for the truth and stubborn willpower drive them on and on. And who knows? Perhaps they'll arrive at the real truth in the end.'"

Quote from Murder:

"But a little later, when I was at confession, the idea suddenly dawned on me: that priest's married, he doesn't keep the fasts and he smokes. Then why should he hear me confess, what authority did he have to pardon my sins, with him more of a sinner than me?"

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

7/10

I read this one a little over six months ago. This is a little collection of four "supernatural" stories which includes the highlight, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, along with The Bottle Imp, Markheim, and The Body-Snatcher. Jekyll and Hyde is a story where I've always known about the basic premise but had never got around to actually reading it. I wish I knew nothing going in so I could have enjoyed the surprise and development of the story rather than just waiting for it to be revealed, but it was still a great story. Probably would have given this book a 9/10 if it was just this story. The other three were not nearly as good and each was less enjoyable than the last with the Body-Snatcher being the weakest with a pretty lame ending, in my opinion. The Bottle Imp was pretty interesting and Markheim was very so-so. Fortunately, Jekyll and Hyde was half of the entire book with the other three tales comprising the remaining half. Overall, not too shabby work from Stevenson and I'm glad to finally get around to Jekyll and Hyde.