zoeelizabethk's Reviews (642)

I’ve got to admit that I’m not a big Shakespeare person. I’m not a big play person either. And this one was particularly confusing. Acts 4 and 5 were mostly pretty fun but the whole concept felt too bizarre and ridiculous. Ultimately, I only read it because my 2020 book challenge included a Shakespeare play. I fulfilled my duty.

I loved Crown of Swords! I read some reviews that felt like it lagged, and this book could have been shorter, but I absolutely love political intrigue novels, so I had a blast with this one. I feel like a lot of stuff got set up that means that next one is probably going to be full action.

“[Creation of Christian culture] does not mean destroying all that came before, but creatively transforming it all through the profound depths of a transfigured and free spirit. Secular culture wil not be destroyed, then, but will be transfigured and given spiritual depths though free contemplation, the spirit of love, the spirit of organic, sincere form, through a wil toward objective perfection.” (38)

A very important and timely translation about how we as Christians are called to accept and transfigure the world instead of rejecting the world in its entirely in order to cocreate. We continue the transfiguration of the world that Christ accomplished in the incarnation.

“This means that we do not imagine that the next generation of people can or must ‘create Christian culture.’ Not ‘create,’ but once again to step on the path of that creation, to return to it and renew this process, which has been historically interrupted. In other words, we must renew the Christian spirit and action within ourselves first, then bring it to our creativity in the world.” (38)

This little book also contains a lecture from Ilyin on “The Spiritual Meaning of Stories,” an article by Ilyin entitled “What is Art?” And an essay/blog post from the translator using Ilyin’s writings to draw a distinction between patriotism and nationalism.

Very glad I read Dune. The pacing felt a bit odd at times and the ending left me wanting to read more of the books, but also not sure if I want to read more. What a conundrum.

Zuleikha took me too long to read. I saw it on a list of upcoming translations before it was published, preordered it, took forever to pick it up, and put it down and picked it up over the course of months. This novel is incredibly heart wrenching. It is hard to read at times, especially Yakhina’s reveals the repression of many and the gross mismanagement that cause so much hurt and loss of life. It was really hard to read at time when I mostly want to read to escape the realities of life. And yet this novel is about love and family, hope and redemption, and forgiveness and ultimately the incredible human capacity for love and good in spite of everything. I can’t deny that I started crying at the end. The characters and prose are poignantly crafted and haunting. There may be some things I didn’t love about this novel, but I can’t help giving it 5 stars and telling you to go read it, now.

I asked for this book for a Christmas a couple years ago but it sat on my bookshelf, barely touched. I recently found it again and it is clear that I rediscovered it at just the right time. The life and wisdom of Elder Thaddeus is so attuned to our present age and time. I felt like he was there guiding me through the book, teaching me about things that are very close to my soul as well as, I'm sure, to others'. I cannot recommend this book enough, but I warn you that it will likely change your life.

I don’t know. I appreciated the experimental storytelling but I’m just not sure that it really worked for me. The characters felt distant and many things were left (I think) intentionally vague which mostly just ended up confusing. This is also the first book I’ve read where a character had their pronouns and I find it very jarring in the formal written word. 2.5 stars I think

Very very fun. I will admit that I listened to this as an audio and while I love Gaiman reading to me, I just wasn’t really always paying attention enough to catch everything that was going on, but Good Omens is fabulously witty and unexpected. It reminded me of Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus trilogy which is a wonderful thing.

I picked up White Sand because it’s one of the few of Sanderson’s series that I haven’t read. I had a hard time feeling really into the first part of it, but it definitely picked up, and just like in Brandon’s other novels, once the worldbuilding starts ramping up and you begin to understand the complexities, it’s hard to put it down. Looking forward to staring volume 2. 3.5 stars.