Day 217: Book Haul!

Sometimes I like to read outside my comfort zone, find a book that turns me off initially and try to read it anyway. They say not to judge a book by its cover, but more often than not it's just an easy way to make sure you aren't wasting your time with something you won't enjoy. I always read the blurb to see if I'll like it, and 99% of the time if I don't like the blurb I'll put the book down. For this book haul though, I decided to ignore that instinct and pick up some titles that I wouldn't otherwise care to read. For the past several months I've been reading daring science fiction, suspenseful spy novels, and books that cover some of the deepest truths of our society. All stuff I love to read about. Now I'm going to try reading some slower books, covering smaller topics. The minutia of life. I also included a kind of science fiction I rarely attempt to read, and that's science fiction with a profound religious basis. I'm looking forward to see if I'll enjoy any of it. I've often found that the books I put myself out of my comfort zone with are the ones I come to dwell the most on.

Small disclaimer though, I'm not going to be able to exclusively read that kind of fiction so I'll be reading the Heinlein collection along the way. Expect some reviews of the stories therein while I'm reading the books I gathered in this haul.

Starting off I have a book that caught my eye for the title alone, 'Toad,' by Katherine Dunn. This is a story about a young woman who lives alone in her late twenties, preferring to hide away from society and live like, well, a toad under a rock. Through the course of the story she reminisces about the friends she's lost over time, her misspent youth, and why she lives like she does now. I'm hoping it'll be a little more uplifting by the end than it sounds, should be an interesting read nonetheless.

Next I have a two book series called 'The Sparrow Series' by Mary Doria Russell. A Jesuit priest has returned from a deep space mission to make first contact with an alien species on the planet Rakhat. As the only survivor of the aliens' terrible treatment of the missionaries, the story he has to tell about the planet he visited and the people he met there is awaited with baited breath by everyone on Earth. This is more my speed, and I think it'll be an interesting take on the first contact trope that so many have written about. I've never read anything where the main character is a Jesuit priest either, making this another first for me.

Finally I have another slow life book, 'Anything is Possible' by Elizabeth Strout. This one won a Pulitzer prize, which means if I hate it I'm just plain wrong, right? This one concerns a cast of small town characters who grapple with understanding life and themselves. Two sisters with opposite takes on the good life, a janitor at the local school who has his faith tested, a daughter who deeply misses her mother but knows she is happier overseas. I can only figure that if you're capable of writing about these topics and making it interesting than you must be a much better writer than I am, so I'm sure to learn a thing or two from this even if it turns out not to be my cup of tea.

That's about it for this book haul. I'm aiming to read 24 books this year, seeing as I read 23 last year. That's two per month, nothing overly ambitious, and I'd be happy to beat it. Let's see how soon I can get these three reviews out, shall we?

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley