The February, 2024 Reading List

 

The first book on my list of books read in February is The Worlds Religions by Huston Smith. The book was initially based on a class given by Smith at Washington University in St. Louis in 1955. The class attracted the attention of a NET affiliate (the precursor of PBS) who produced a television series based on Smith's class. The series would lead to the development of a book that became the standard textbook for colleges and universities for classes on the World's Religions. .

A book review from 1958 says;
"Because Dr. Huston Smith, Professor of Philosophy at Washington University, St. Louis, has such a high regard for man, he is able to give us a book about man's major religions that an intelligent reader may read, understand and be thankful for. Refusing to be [sic] begged down by the details which so easily and often throw the interested inquirer off the track, he moves rapidly into the meaning these religions carry for the lives of their adherents. In this book, we both [sic] sea and feel why and how they guide and motivate the lives of those who live by them".

I recommend this book to anyone interested in taking a look at religions other than their own.

I wrote of Oyinkan Braithwaite's My Sister, The Serial Killer in an earlier blog post.

Two of the books on this months list - The Wolf Hunt by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen and Budapest Noir by Kondor Vilmos - were introduced to me through recommendations from the Commentary Magazine daily podcast. It's one of my go to podcasts, by the way.

Finally, I wrote a bit about 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami in my last blog post. This "trilogy" has lead me to put more of Murakami's books into the queue, as well as Dickens' Oliver Twist. Of course, another book in Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series will be on the list for March.

Now, for the list:

The Worlds Religions             by Huston Smith
My Sister, The Serial Killer   by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Wolf Hunt             by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Budapest Noir             by Kondor Vilmos
1Q84 (books 1,2 & 3)   by Haruki Murakami

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

 

I first became award of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami a little over two years ago, reading two of his novels - Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore. Both of my blog posts written at the time were favorable toward Murakami, although I mentioned that I thought his novels went into far too much detail about the sexual activities of the characters.

There's no lack of sexual activity in 1Q84 but it seems to be more important to the story than was the case in the earlier novels.

The story takes place in a fictionalized 1984 which slightly parallels the real 1984. The protagonist refers to this parallel year in which she finds herself as 1Q84.

The novel was originally published in Japanese as three separate volumes between 2009 and 2010. When the work was translated into English, it was published as one novel. In the ebook format I have, the book is nearly 850 pages and when I began reading it I was not expecting to finish all three volumes in time to list the book in this month's reading list. I managed to finish the "trilogy" with one day to spare.

It's not really my purpose to go into detail regarding the plot of the book. One can go to Wikipedia for that. I will mention one detail. A musical work, Sinfonietta by Leoš Janáček plays a significant role in all three volumes. I wasn't familiar with Janáček prior to this and I couldn't resist searching for the piece on Spotify. Like two of the characters in 1Q84, I've taken to using Sinfonietta as background music for my workout. 

I'll be putting more of Murakami's novels into the queue.

My Sister, the Serial Killer. by Oyinkan Braithwaite

 

Back in January while reading two novels by Femi Kayode, I came upon a review of one of his novels, written by "Oyinkan Braithwaite, author of My Sister, the Serial Killer." Naturally, with a title like that, I had to locate her book and put it in the queue.

On the Goodreads website, someone describes her book this way-"My Sister, the Serial Killer is a blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker - and more difficult to get out of the carpet - than water..." . That's an pretty fair description.

It was originally published in Nigeria as an e-book entitled Thicker Than Water in 2017, before being released in the United States in November, 2018.

I wouldn't say the book is uproariously funny, but there are comic elements and it's worth a read.

Oyinkan Braithwaite is the third Nigerian writer that I've read recently - the third being Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It's an interesting genre.