Book Review: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

His life is an allegory for the post-colonial history of his homeland, but is it real? is he insane? is he suffering from PTSD? Yes. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie follows the life of man born at the exact moment that India became an independent nation-state and how his life reflected that of the nation.

Rushdie writes the book from the perspective of its protagonist, Saleem Sinai, whose origins are as muddled as that of the nation itself at the time of independence. Throughout the book, the magical elements of Saleem’s familial—hereditary attributes and emotional pollution—and personal life are related by the character himself but instead of simply not mentioning the illogicalness of this Saleem addresses these magical connections directly at several points. As I said above Saleem’s life mirrors that of India’s from its independence in 1947 through the 1980s even though he himself doesn’t stay in India the entire time—living in Pakistan almost a decade until the Bangladesh Independence War of 1971—but that doesn’t stop their connection. Unlike Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, this magical realism novel kept me engaged throughout whether because Rushdie’s actual references to historical events compared to Allende’s allusions to Chilean history thus getting to the history addict in me or simply me liking Rushdie’s writing style over Allende’s. Not only was this Rushdie’s first novel, but it was also my first exposure to his writing, and it makes me interested in others of his work.

Midnight’s Children is an engaging read of how not only a nation, but individuals related to the end of the British Raj and an independent nations early history handled the chan

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Book Review: Rousseau and Revolution by Will & Ariel Durant

The Story of Civilization, Part X: Rousseau and Revolution by Will Durant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If Voltaire was the embodiment of rationalist philosophers looking to bring reason to government and society then Rousseau was the embodiment of Romantic impulse for self-exploration and social revolt, they lived at the same time and died the same year without known their two visions would influence Europe’s most famous Revolution. Rousseau and Revolution is the tenth—the planned concluding but eventually penultimate—volume of The Story of Civilization by Will Durant and for the fourth time joined by wife Ariel Durant which reveals how Jean-Jacques Rousseau brought forth the Romantic counterpoint to Voltaire’s Enlightenment and how it played into the development of Europe in the late 18th century.

Unlike the previous volume, Rousseau is not as prominent throughout but his influence if felt as the chronology of the various parts of Europe are covered politically and culturally especially as the underpinnings of the Romantic movement begin appearing. The decline and fall of the French Ancien régime bookend the volume as Durant signals the fall of the absolute monarchy with Louis XVI putting the cockade of the Revolution on his hat, yet the history behind the collapse is and how each Estate had a ‘revolution’ of their own before being overtaken by the next until that moment. Between the rest of Europe is covered either from where they were politically and culturally left off in either of the last two volumes. As the Durants originally planned that this would be the final volume of the series, they ignored their 1789 ending point to finish out the lives of various individuals and take a glance at various movements—political and cultural—that began in the focused-on decades, and they did not believe they would fully cover. If this had been the final volume as planned it was a good ending to the overall series, but with another volume to go it will be interesting how the Durants write it given how they wrote this one.

Rousseau and Revolution finds Will and Ariel Durant revealing the countering of Voltaire’s emotionless rationalism in Jean-Jacque Rousseau as well as the consequences of his undermining of the Church that help prop up the absolute monarchy leading to the latter’s fall.

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Book Review: Exploring Mark: A Devotional Commentary by George R. Knight

Exploring Mark: A Devotional Commentary by George R. Knight
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is most likely the first gospel written and was aimed at Roman Christians during the persecutions of Nero by a follower of Christ in his youth. Exploring Mark: A Devotional Commentary by George R. Knight reveals that why the other Gospels focus on Jesus’ teachings it is Mark shows He is a Man of Action.

Knight divides his study of Mark into 61 segments allowing him to not only explain each passage within the context of the book, the other Gospels and other parts of the Bible, and providing commentary about what the passage means for us today. Throughout Knight brings out themes and threads that Mark sowed throughout his Gospel from showing Jesus doing things and not just teaching, to sandwiching stories in-between two parts of another, Jesus’ continual request to keep his messiahship secret (which comes into relevance at the end of the Gospel), and finally the continual failure of Jesus’ followers to either understand, believe, or to take action which everyone one of us can relate to. As with other books in Knight’s Devotional Commentary series, context of the time of writing gives greater a clearer understanding to Jesus’ teachings and action that gives to us today the same blessing that those 1st-Century Roman Christians received in their time of need.

Exploring Mark is an excellent commentary and devotional by George R. Knight, who gives insight into the shortest and most like the earliest Gospel for the 21st Century.

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Book Review: The Book of Mark by Thomas R. Shepherd

The Book Of Mark by Thomas R. Shepherd
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It was written for the Christians in Rome during Nero’s persecution and this good news turned out to be the first of four that would reveal the life of Jesus to originally different audiences but collectively for all believers. The Book of Mark is the supplemental book of Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide (3rd Quarter 2024) by Thomas R. Shepherd reveals a striking, forthright, and powerful Jesus in the first evangelist’s gospel. Throughout the book Shepherd reveals the significance of “sandwich” stories, brings to the forefront a revelation-secrecy motif that reoccurs through the gospel, and emphasizes how Jesus’ authority comes into conflict with the religious leaders of the day through 13 chapters that cover the gospel from start to finish. I would highly recommend this 128-page book as a companion piece if one is studying Mark’s Gospel on your own.

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Book Review: A Struggle for Power by Theodore Draper

A Struggle for Power: The American Revolution by Theodore Draper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So how did the relationship between Great Britain and the British American colonies deteriorate into war in a little over a decade after securing a huge victory over France that secured them everything east of the Mississippi and all of Canada? The Struggle for Power: The American Revolution by Theodore Draper details how ideological factors were the main cause of the American Revolution.

While Draper begins the book the debate occurring in Britain about whether to keep Canada or Guadeloupe after the end of the Seven Years’ War—aka French and Indian War—using the arguments that had begun during the Stuart restoration nearly a century before about how to keep the American colonies dependent on Britain. However, Draper showed that those old arguments had since been surpassed by the economic prowess of the American colonies and did not consider the political attitudes and realities of those colonies until it was too late. Throughout the book Draper illustrates that the American Revolution came down not to paying taxes, but who had the power to pass tax legislation and collect the money. Over the course of a little over 500 pages, Draper developed his case by not only American sources but those of the British as well, showing the ideological arguments over 12 years that eventually could only be settled in blood.

The Struggle for Power as a great look into the cause of the American Revolution by Theodore Draper, not only seeing it from the western side of the Atlantic but in the mother country too.

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Book Review: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A human male emissary to a planet of androgynous humans attempts to open them up to the rest of the galactic human civilizations navigates the religious, social, cultural, and political webs that cross the two largest nations of the planet. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin is a science fiction novel that deals sex and gender that changed the genre as well as put her into the forefront of it as well.

Having heard that significance of this book as well the importance of the author to science fiction and fantasy, I felt the need to make sure I read it. Upon completing it I found it a fine narrative and an interesting worldbuilding that Le Guin created in social structures and political systems, and I personally found that the book reveals two different means for its title. However, the 55 years since the book published—at time of reading—things have changed in fiction and real life that have blunted its impact, namely another book and it’s adapted film franchise as well as certain sports controversies including one that happened while I was reading this book. Frankly this is a good read and I’m not disappointed in reading it, but unlike when it first came out its “impact” isn’t really felt to me personally.

The Left Hand of Darkness is one of Ursula K. Le Guin’s best-known works, while I felt it was good I didn’t feel the impact that is associated with one of this book’s main themes which probably affected my overall view of the book.

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Book Review: Cosmos by Carl Sagan

Cosmos by Carl Sagan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A companion book to one of the most influential science documentary miniseries of all-time, the success of both the miniseries and this book redefined the popular science genre for the public. Cosmos by Carl Sagan is a book that not only covers the mysteries of space but various fields of science from the origin to the present (of time of publication).

Over the course of nearly 300 pages, Sagan covers a wide range of scientific topics over the course of 13 chapters that correspond to the 13 episodes of the PBS miniseries it was written to compliment. Using a conversational writing style that connects with the general reader, Sagan explains complex scientific information without being condensing but encouraging for those interested to investigate further on whatever topic caught their attention. Given that this was published over 40 years ago some of the scientific information is outdated—something Sagan would be happy about given his call to expand our knowledge—and the cultural overtones related to the Cold War especially nuclear self-destruction do stand out as jarring, but don’t take away from overall book.

Cosmos by Carl Sagan is an engagingly written book for the general reader about very complex scientific ideas.

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