Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution by Rainn Wilson

January 8, 2024 – January 23, 2024

That’s it, I can’t do it anymore. I’m stopping reading. I told myself I was going to make it to the end because 1) I could actually read the book club book this month and 2) my husband said I can’t write mean reviews for books I haven’t finished.

Well my sanity is on the line so I’m stopping, and I’m not caring. So how far did I make it? I made it about halfway, if you get to the point where he’s talking about religion and how incredibly awful the Christians are in Jerusalem I stopped around there.

So why was this book so distasteful?

My husband put it best. He said he talked like a high schooler who just discovered that religion is complicated. He didn’t say anything interesting and how he talked, I get that he was trying to be relatable and approachable, but all it did was come off sounding just so dumb.

Yes I’m being mean and the five followers I have can be influenced by me.

Maybe if you aren’t almost constantly getting sermons and articles written on spirituality by very smart people this will all sound new and exciting. But honestly? A pandemic of materialism? OOOoooooo very spooky. Then him dropping the “bomb” that he was going to talk about death first like he was supposed to be some sort of edgy philosopher?

He did attempt to answer some hard questions, he just did it very poorly each time he attempted it. Like his response to “why do bad things happen to good people” was just to say “well it sure would be boring if there were no trials in this life!” Like (makes a “WHAT?!” hand motion).

And yes I was more than bothered by how anti-christian he was. Sure he said to your face that he wasn’t against any one religion, but he began the book by saying “And then there Christians said this stupid thing about what the kingdom of god is” and continued to saying “All the jews and Muslims were awesome and respectful and lovely but those Christians they got into fist fights over what is supposed to be their holiest site!”

Honestly, this took me back to high school listening to people talking about spirituality and the evils of my religion, and back then I sat there and took it because they were bigger and scarier than me. Well I’m 37 and this isn’t high school and this is the internet where I can say what I want and no one will read it.

I think it was a poorly written book with half-baked ideas by someone who thinks very highly of himself but then says that he doesn’t. And they are charging $16 for it on kindle?!

(takes a deep breath)

Today I had a real conversation on spirituality with ChatGPT as part of my scripture study, and the robot said more meaningful insights than this entire book put together.

There. I’m done. Do I feel better?

Yes. Yes I do.

System Collapse by Martha Wells, The Murderbot Diaries #7

January 1, 2024 – January 7, 2024

Yes! Six stars!

My parents ask me what I want for Christmas every year and I just sent them a link to this book on Amazon saying “This is exactly what I want.” Of course, my Dad surprised me and got me the new Percy Jackson book too, but I was ecstatic to get exactly what I asked for.

Because I love these books so much. Honestly, I was a little disappointed to see that it was another novella when she gave me a whole awesome novel before. But hey, any Murderbot is better than, well, pretty much everything.

I’m actually really glad that it picked up where the novel left off. There were so many questions I had, particularly about Three and how it was handling its new freedom. Finding out about Murderbot’s ptsd was interesting as well, because their (I keep wanting to say “her” – I don’t care what the audiobook says Murderbot is a female in my head) episode with monster possessed person was beyond freaky. But yeah, they’ve been through a lot and held it together so it is significant that they are falling apart now.

I also liked the parts when jerk girl is escaping with them and she just turns to them and asks if Murderbot really is a SecUnit. Like no, they aren’t, they are a fully realized person, but we have to keep it a secret so they aren’t hauled off as scrap.

Then at the end… When that one SecUnit frees itself and lets them go… Now I’m wondering the same thing I did about Three – what happened to them? Can they escape to Preservation too? Are they going to get a population of free SecUnits?

I’m sad that Muderbot chose to go leave the Preservation crew, but I’m happy that it’s they get to be with ART. It’ll be fun to see what adventure they find themselves in next!

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus #4

December 6, 2023 – December 12, 2023

Yup this one is my favorite. From Jason figuring out he’s more Greek than Roman to Frank literally growing into his potential, each character’s growth is awesome. Especially Leo and Calypso, that love story punched me in the face. Almost as much as Nico literally getting attacked by Cupid. Man, it is so frustrating, no one would care but Nico has this narrative in his head that he’s broken, when he’s not. I know lots of gay kids feel that way but as a straight person who just freaking doesn’t care I can relate with Jason.

I also really loved the part where Rachel and Grover meet up with the Romans. Because she’s freaking powerful and they should be scared of her. I wish she actually got possessed and gave Octavian a prophecy just to freak him out, but they probably would have killed her.

Now let’s talk about the main attraction of this book, Percy and Annabeth thrown into hell! Gasp! The last book ended literally on a cliffhanger, and now what will they do?! Each step they took and trial they faced was insane and made you wonder how they survived. The curses were particularly hard to watch as Percy just layers them on so he could get to her. I saw a thing once that being abandoned is a big vulnerability to Annabeth. Her father was absent, Luke left her, everyone seemed to leave her except Percy, then he was taken away. But he got to her!

Now for the main attraction in the attraction. Dark Percy. I was trying to sell these books to someone who has only read Lightning Thief, and telling her what Percy did is what did it. I don’t know what it is, maybe how he wrote it where all of Percy’s angst comes out all at once, all the darkness he keeps inside. He’s a hero, he does what’s right, but he has a lot of anger built up towards the gods. And here was a goddess who was not only trying to kill them but to make them suffer for no other reason than because that is what she was the goddess of. So what does Percy do? Taking control of her poison wasn’t enough, he had to drown her in her own tears. Just thinking about it gives me chills. But he stops. Annabeth is there to remind him of who he is. It makes him so real, that he really is one decision away from being a bad guy, from being a monster.

Ug, I love it so much. I love these books so much. The show comes out next week! Thinking about 12-year-old Percy, he’s such a baby. I hope it is super successful so they will make the other books. Because I need to see this in person.

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus #3

November 10, 2023 – Decemeber 5, 2023

For a book I like this much it sure did take me a long time to read! Given it was a second read so there wasn’t the pressure of “WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN!?!?!?!” But still. I’m still riding my obsessive Percy Jackson kick (the show comes out this month!!!) and this one hits right in all the right places. Like hearing from Annabeth’s POV? Excellent. Cute Percy Annabeth moments (especially their night in the stables)? Yes Please. Percy and Jason figuring out their masculine whateverness? Please. On top of that you get the other guys we all love (the ladies luv Leo!) and the mythology/history lesson? These books are just so good.

Things that drove me crazy. Jason. Knowing he’s not going to make it to seventeen put a real downer on his sixteenth birthday. And then Piper’s all “I LOVE YOU!” just falls flat because she’s going to be dumping him in a couple of months. The Apollo books have just ruined these books for me.

Am I going to stop? Of course I’m not going to stop! Sure I’m ticked at Uncle Rick but these are still excellent books that I love dearly.

I especially love the next one. Which I promise to read a lot faster!

Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes by Rick Riordan

November 12, 2023 – November 25, 2023

Wow that was depressing! Like he warned us up front and everything but some of these heros either turned into jerks or just had a miserable death. I did like Perseus and the wife of Eros, those had happy endings. It kind of put the Percy Jackson books in a new light. Speaking of which I saw someone say that they would be able to absorb history and random stuff so much better if Percy Jackson narrated them and I totally agree.

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus #2

November 2, 2023 – November 5, 2023

Spoiler: this one has Percy!

I remember reading Lost Hero and thinking “ok this is fun,” then I opened this one and it said “Percy” and I was like “Oh yeah! There he is!”

Because I love Percy. He’s my fav. And this book was so fun. Partly because we get to see him through other POVs (like Hazle thinking he was a Roman god because he was that hott and powerful) is a nice contrast to Percy’s inner “I’m going to die!” monologue. It is also super sweet that Hera couldn’t take Annabeth from him. She was able to strip away all his memories but she couldn’t take that one. Because those two are my fav. 😛

Anyways! Fun ride, with new characters to fall in love with. I’m looking forward to Percy getting flipped. 😛

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson, Ernest Cunningham #1

October 23, 2023 – October 24, 2023

There are over 50k reviews of this book, so I can say whatever I want because the chances of anyone reading this other than my good friend in Utah (hi!) is very VERY small.

I guess I should start with the fact that I didn’t finish it. And it was evenly split between a one star this-book-broke-me and four star this-was-a-good-book. I wanted to keep going, but I couldn’t.

I feel like I dodged a bullet with this book, which is frustrating because I was really enjoying it and it was really well written. I LIKED how you felt like you were solving the mystery along with him, how it was broken up into sections by family members.

So what was my problem if it was so great? It was just my personal annoyingly broken brain. I was already having a bad mental health day and this book made me scream in my head. The scene where he talked about when he was trapped in a locked car with his brothers and his brother died sitting next to him. And then when he was going on about how his marriage fell apart because he was infertile. It was all a little too much for me.

Other people who aren’t me should read this book. Like I’m recommending it to my husband. I just couldn’t do it. Which makes me all sorts of depressed – like everyone else gets to go outside and play but I have to stay in my bed.

Oh well. I woke up the next morning and was fine. Like I said, dodged a bullet and all that.

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