Review: Indigenous Toronto: Stories That Carry This Place

Indigenous Toronto: Stories That Carry This Place by Denise Bolduc
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think I got this book as a freebie at a professional development, when I first started learning about Indigenous Education. It is a collection of essays relating, certainly not surprisingly, with the experience of Indigenous people in Toronto. The essays within are reflections on the past, present and future of these communities in Toronto and are a really helpful way to learn about Toronto in a new way.

The essays are organized into four sections- the first dealing with the early history of the place with a focus on the land and the agreements entered into by the peoples of the land and European settlers. The second looks at the more recent past of the Indigenous community and continues with a third, which looks at the experienced today. The last looks for future transformation and paths. The articles are really diverse, but give a really good sense of the experience of Indigenous peoples in this city. The stories are funny, touching and engaging. And they give a new dimension to understanding the city in which I live.

This is definitely important reading for all of those who live in Toronto or have connections.

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Review: The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is another of the novel in the Book Club assignment I give in my Indigenous literatures course. It follows Lou, a Metis young woman in Alberta, who spends the summer working at her uncles' ice cream shake, just before going off to university in the fall. It is a coming of age book, with a few twists and is a genuinely, lovely story.

Not to give spoilers, what I love about this book is that way that it explores sexuality and Indigenous identity in real life. Lou is flawed like all of us and struggles to learn who she is and how she should be in the world. Yet, she finds her way, supported by family and friends, navigating her relationship with her biological father and her own sexuality. There's hard things in here, like the aftermath of rape and trauma in general. But I can't help but love the story.

This is well worth reading as an uplifting story or as a way of exploring identity.

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Review: Fail-Safe

Fail-Safe by Eugene Burdick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been meaning to pick this book up because it is a classic in post-apocalyptic science fiction at a time when the horrifying truth of the nuclear arms race was beginning to settled in. Along with such books as Alas Bablylon (which I've reviewed), Red Alert (the inspiration for Dr. Strangelove), and On the Beach, Fail-Safe helped define this genre of just how bad, bad can get with nuclear weapons. While somewhat more optimistic than later representatives of the genre (because some people survive), these books are important representatives of the nightmares that the atomic age brought the world in the late 1950s and early 60s.

Fail-Safe's particular nightmare vision is to explore what would happen if all the failsafe measures taken to ensure that a nuclear attack wouldn't be launched all failed together. In this novel, during a fairly routine alert, a flight of American bombers mistakenly fail to be recalled from alert and move to bomb Moscow. The novel explores how the leadership of Strategic Air Command, the Pentagon and the president of the US himself (with his Russian interpreter) attempt to prevent the attack and all out nuclear war. When that effort fails, it leads to a tragic act of atonement (not going to spoil it here) as a last ditch attempt to avoid all out ear.

The book is wrenching as it follows several characters, how they think and how they are forced to make what is a horrifying decision. Also, made into a movie, it questioned the wisdom of nuclear weapons and was an influence on anti-nuclear resistance in the later 60s. The world is very much the 1950s, so a lot of things are jarring, but its message remains important today.

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Review: Wayi Wah! Indigenous Pedagogies: An Act for Reconciliation and Anti-Racist Education

Wayi Wah! Indigenous Pedagogies: An Act for Reconciliation and Anti-Racist Education by Jo Chrona
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first ran into this book when a colleague mentioned it to me last year in connection to the Indigenous literatures course we were sharing. It is, of course, a book dealing with Indigenous pedagogies and, obviously, connected well to the work we were doing on the course. I finally got the book at Christmas and have been reading it slowly on transit since then.

Wayi Wah (meaning 'Let's go, It's time) looks carefully at how to teach, both how to do anti-racist education and foster reconciliation in educational circles, but also looks at the practical concerns of devising a Indigenous pedagogies, from the classroom to how to work on it within an educational system. The author, Jo Chrona, is a Two-Spirited woman of Ts'msyen and European heritage and has been teaching in both K-12 and post-secondary settings for 25 years, especially in British Columbia. Her wealth of experience makes this a crucial book for anyone considering Indigenous pedagogies, in all their complexities.

If you are a teacher, this is an important book and one that I think is important to understand. As a settler who teaches an Indigenous literatures course, it has been really helpful for me as I try to navigate this difficult, but rewarding work.

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Review: Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked this up almost two years ago as part of my ongoing education about Indigenous peoples. I've been looking for a solid history and this is what I got, although it is primarily about what is now called the United States (so the search continues for one dealing with Canada!). Dr. Kathleen Duval presents a highly nuanced and thoughtful history of various representatives Indigenous peoples in the United States, following them from early contact to today. It is a remarkable work of history.

What is striking about Duval's work is its emphasis on the resistance of Indigenous peoples, which is enough to shift the perspective away from the vanishing Indian stereotype so typical of mainstream history. The story we end up with is one which saw a closer to even power balance in the early decades of European settlement, when each of the colonial powers made treaties and negotiated alliances with Indigenous peoples which deteriorated as more and more European settlers flowed in and the weakened Indigenous peoples were pushed off their land to the West. That part of the story is familiar, but what we see in Duval's narrative is the consistent resistance to those powerful forces until today, when a renaissance is beginning to take grip among Indigenous peoples. It is an awful story- painful, but also inspiring.

This book is really worth reading because it forces us to think about how history has been written on this continent and how Indigenous peoples have been consistent and relentlessly erased. It is a valuable corrective and an important book.

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Review: How to Be a Monastic and Not Leave Your Day Job: An Invitation to Oblate Life

How to Be a Monastic and Not Leave Your Day Job: An Invitation to Oblate Life by Benet Tvedten
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is, perhaps, hardly a surprise to find in my book list, given the many, many Benedictine books that I've read over the last ten years. And the fact that this is about oblates, just reinforces the pattern. Really, what this book is a manual for oblates of Benedictine monasteries- meant to explain what being an oblate is like, what Benedictine value are and how one an become an oblate. Given the success of oblate recruitment in the last two generations, it is a much needed volume.

As a manual, it has all the things one would expect. A good outline of Benedictine values and practices, of course, as well as plenty of good examples of the oblate life. For someone like me, who isn't especially likely to formalize a commitment like this, it is still a helpful book for learning from the Benedictine tradition. The whole point of oblate life is to adapt the Rule of Benedict to one's life and that can still be done even when one lives away from a monastery.

So, I'd still say this is worth reading for anyone interested in the Benedictine tradition as a way to learn how to apply the Rule to one's life.

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Review: Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved by Kate Bowler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been slow in discovering Kate Bowler, I have to admit and, honestly, I have no excuse. Because my wife has been reading her books for years and i just haven't come around to picking them up. In fact, it took a few of her videos on her new book on Joy to catch my attention. On video, she's funny and sharp and, honestly, wise. Her writing is no less insightful.

In this book, Bowler tells the story of her bout with serious cancer, which almost was fatal, but which has gone into remission. It is also a reflection on the American pre-occupation with self-help and what that does to those who are suffering and those who are grieving. Her study of the prosperity gospel is part of this, but her recognition of the tendency for North Americans to try to find a reason for suffering is one that extends well out of that milieu.

Bowler's point is that we have to recognize that those things that we try to assure ourselves of, that our suffering will mean something , don't just collapse as soon as we face suffering beyond our control, but it is positively harmful for those who are trying to cling to it. But that doesn't mean nihilism or fatalism, but rather it pushes back to God for hope and, even joy. I find it striking that Bowler's description of being in the midst of the cancer and the treatments, not sure if she'd live or die in the coming months, but yet being borne up with a strong sense being borne up by other people's prayers and God's compassion is striking and evocative. And almost completely impossible to replicate. It is grappling with both those realities- imminent death and inexplicable consolation- which drives this book.

This book leaves us in a complicated place without the easy answers to suffering that we'd all love to have, but also consoled as well that God can be there too, alongside. It's a good reminder, but not an easy one.

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Review: The Abbey Up the Hill: A Year in the Life of a Monastic Day Tripper

The Abbey Up the Hill: A Year in the Life of a Monastic Day Tripper by Carol Bonomo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I ran into this browsing around Google Play and was happy to run into it. Years back, I read Carol Bonomo's book on humility, which is both more profound and funnier than one expects a book on that subject to be. Bonomo's blend of curmudgin, Benedictine oblate and honest observer is refreshing and very much places her in the tradition of Kathleen Norris, which is high praise coming from me.

This book follows Bonomo on a years long question to visit the monastery in San Diego which she was recently made an oblate in (or is it to?) once or twice a month. We watch her as she copes with her own sense of being an outsider and her growing connections with her spiritual advisor and with other members of the monastic and oblate community. Her sensitive prose follows her struggles in feeling like she belonged and is definitely relatable.

I really enjoyed this book, both for its honesty and for its comittement to Benedictine values. It is well worth reading.

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Review: The Eye of the Storm: Living Spiritually in the Real World

The Eye of the Storm: Living Spiritually in the Real World by Kenneth Leech
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started reading this because my rector of my church had mentioned Kenneth Leech and it is actually tricky to find his books these days, so this was in the church library. Published in the 90s, it is an Anglo-Catholic take on how to leave in a complicated and confusing world- one that has surprising resonances to the 2020s. Leach saw the problems of social justice and Christian Nationalism from a British standpoint and is surprisingly prescient about their implications.

Leech's main focus is to articulate a Anglo-Catholic vision of how to deal with an unjust world. He comes from a traditional of Anglo-Catholic British churches in very working class areas, mingling, at least, socialism with catholic theology. His insights are worth looking today as an alternative to a well meaning, but out of touch progressivism which characterizes much of the Anglican church as well as the conservative merging with the political right wing.

This book is definitely worth reading, even despite it's occasionally dated referencing. It offers another way of seeing the Christian life and one that needs to be considered,

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Review: Day of Infamy

Day of Infamy by Walter Lord
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a really valuable first generation World War II history- the kind which focuses very hard on eye-witness testimony and has done so much of the necessary interviews done while the participants in the events are not only still alive, but when the memory was still pretty fresh. The result is a vivid account of the day of the attack on Pearl Harbour, December 7th, 1941.

Walter Lord's writing is vivid, sometimes sensationalistic, but eminently readable. There is, of course, lots of American flag waving, but one has to expect that from both the genre and the era. It gives a really strong sense of the confusion, chaos and courage of the day and therein lies its principal value.

What I would wish for, and which has been supplied by the historians who have followed Lord, was more from the Japanese side (tricky because so many of the participants died) and more on the why the attack took place and why the Americans were caught so unprepared. But, as I say, there's lots of books which do that.

On the whole, this book is still well worth reading for its vivid account of a pivotal moment in World War II.

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Review: The Shortest History of Greece

The Shortest History of Greece by James Heneage
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up from my library app because I'm about to go on a trip with 37 of my students over March Break and I wanted to refresh my memory on the history of Greece- not the ancient or Byzantine periods. I've been studying those for decades, but rather the Ottoman and modern history of Greece. I will say, in passing, it is really hard to find books on this period. I mean, surprisingly so. I know that reflects the tendency of modern North Americans to pay attention only to the ancient periods in Italy and Greece, but it is really glaring!

The book itself is good enough. I had to squirm and sigh all the way through the ancient and Byzantine periods, not so much because of inaccuracies, but more because the editorial stress on Greece as the origin of Western democracy really annoyed me. I mean, yes, it is one of the sources, but let's all remember that the radical democracy of Athens was not only a bit of a disaster, but also it really only involved 30 000 or the approximately 250 000 people in Athens. Modern representative democracy may not be as responsive on every single issue, but it has a wider reach and is usually more stable. This is a long way of saying that, when it comes to democracy in ancient Greece, it's complicated. More complicated that this book with its Western civilization lens misses.

I found the other periods easier to take, even though the tone never really eases down. The Ottoman period and the Revolution is told with the outrage you'd expected and, fair enough. The modern period has a strong anti-socialist lean and outlines with suitable horror the financial disasters of the 2010s. These are the periods I wanted to refresh my reading on and, editing for the editorial bias, it was really quite helpful.

This is a worthwhile book to read, but be cautious about the rather heavy axes the author likes to grind while telling the story.

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Review: The Shortest History of Greece

The Shortest History of Greece by James Heneage
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up from my library app because I'm about to go on a trip with 37 of my students over March Break and I wanted to refresh my memory on the history of Greece- not the ancient or Byzantine periods. I've been studying those for decades, but rather the Ottoman and modern history of Greece. I will say, in passing, it is really hard to find books on this period. I mean, surprisingly so. I know that reflects the tendency of modern North Americans to pay attention only to the ancient periods in Italy and Greece, but it is really glaring!

The book itself is good enough. I had to squirm and sigh all the way through the ancient and Byzantine periods, not so much because of inaccuracies, but more because the editorial stress on Greece as the origin of Western democracy really annoyed me. I mean, yes, it is one of the sources, but let's all remember that the radical democracy of Athens was not only a bit of a disaster, but also it really only involved 30 000 or the approximately 250 000 people in Athens. Modern representative democracy may not be as responsive on every single issue, but it has a wider reach and is usually more stable. This is a long way of saying that, when it comes to democracy in ancient Greece, it's complicated. More complicated that this book with its Western civilization lens misses.

I found the other periods easier to take, even though the tone never really eases down. The Ottoman period and the Revolution is told with the outrage you'd expected and, fair enough. The modern period has a strong anti-socialist lean and outlines with suitable horror the financial disasters of the 2010s. These are the periods I wanted to refresh my reading on and, editing for the editorial bias, it was really quite helpful.

This is a worthwhile book to read, but be cautious about the rather heavy axes the author likes to grind while telling the story.

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Review: Miracle at Midway

Miracle at Midway by Gordon W. Prange
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm pretty sure this is a re-read, although it was so long ago that I read it that I feels new. The subject itself is pretty easy to figure out- the Battle of Midway, the turning point in the Pacific War. Prange and his co-authors take us through their account, based on exhaustive research and engagement with those who fought in the battle on both sides. The result is a compelling and detailed account of the battle- its leadup and aftermath as well.

This is still a very American book and you have to expect a certain American triumphalism. And, fair enough, this was a victory which was decisive as it was unexpected. The pummeling of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour and six months of constant victory made the Japanese complacent, but even with that, except for a crucial six minutes in which the Americans managed to unwittingly concentrate their dive bombers over the Japanese carriers, with all their fighters too low to intervene and carriers at their most incendiary, the Japanese were easily winning. Not the victory was all luck- the Japanese were sloppy and the Americans much less so. Be be warned about the tone.

Yet, this is still worth reading. It is a compelling underdog story and Prange brings the preparations and the battle to life.

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Review: Resurgence: Engaging With Indigenous Narratives and Cultural Expressions In and Beyond the Classroom (The Footbridge)

Resurgence: Engaging With Indigenous Narratives and Cultural Expressions In and Beyond the Classroom (The Footbridge) by Christine M'Lot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book from a workshop in my board on Indigenous Education. What this book is is is a collection of essays from Indigenous educators, artists, Knowledge Keepers about the theme of Resurgence. The essays are superb and are really useful for both educators in learning about the experience of Indigenous peoples, but also for use with students as a way of entering into this theme. They come with various reflections and questions for reflection as well as next steps, which are useful for teachers. The stories are moving and thoughtful, so will engage readers. Well worth reading!

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Review: The Prophetic Imagination

The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked this book up to read largely because our youth minister was using it in their series on the prophets with the youth, so I figured it might be helpful to read it. I'm glad I did because this is one of those books whose influence goes well beyond people who have actually read it.

The basic idea of this book is to look at the Hebrew Testament prophets in light of their relationship to Israel and, especially to the kings.. Starting with Samuel and his very critical warnings about kingship before he appointed the first king of Israel, Saul, Bruggemann charts the role of the prophet in Israel in challenging the royal vision of God and giving hope as that vision continues to fail time and time again. The applicability of that critique continues to this day and is one of the reasons why this book resonates among contemporary, often progressive Christians.

I think my only caveat is that I think Bruggemann makes the distinction between the often syncretistic, power-driven royal religion and the prophets sometimes too sharply. Yes, there are an awful lot of abusive, unfaithful rulers in Israel and Judaea, but, every once in a while, either an unfaithful one shifts or a faithful ruler appears, and for a while, royal religion becomes faithful again. I think, if we take the Hebrew Testament as whole, the intention was that royal religion would coincide with the prophetic and, in the best of the kings, it does (David getting as close as anyone could). The failure of the kings doesn't change that.

But that disagreement aside, I think this is a superb book and well worth reading, not only for those seeking to understand the Hebrew Testaments, but also those contemplating a prophetic role in todays much different, yet no so different political realms.

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Review: The Martian Chronicles

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance

Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance by Jesse Wente
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been meaning to get to this book for some months, but keep getting pulled away. In this book, Jesse Wente offers his story of being an Indigenous youth and adult living in Toronto in the 70s onward. In telling his story, Jesse Wente not only connects with the ambiguities and confusions of being an Urban Indigenous person, but also with the racism that underlies Canadian society. He also gives an insight into media and its attitudes to Indigenous issues and people, through is experiences with the CBC and TIFF. The result is a challenging read (for a middle age white guy like me), but a rewarding one.

What I appreciate about Jesse Wente's writing is his honesty and humour which pervade his writing. His discussion about his struggles with his identity, especially because he lived removed from his family's community, is nuanced and expresses the ambiguities of the move to the cities that many Indigenous people have made. His struggles to promote Indigenous voices in media are familiar to someone living through the 1990s and 2000s, but are painful, especially in retrospect. Wente's point is that Canadian society has to face up to the truth not only of what it has done, but what it is doing in respect to Indigenous peoples, and this book contributes to that challenge.

I recommend this book heartily for those who are trying to understand the experience of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Jesse Wente is both poignant and funny, sometimes at the same time, and this is a really good read.

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Review: Red Storm Rising

Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an old favourite which I keep going back to every, say, five to ten years. It is a peculiar book for a peculiar time- the late 1980s in the last years of the Cold War. The best way to describe it is that it was one of those books which sought to give a picture of a war with the Soviet Union which didn't end in nuclear annihilation, as many of us feared at the time. Ultimately, it's basic premises were that the Soviet Union was, despite its military power, economically and socially near collapse (which, actually wasn't far from the truth as we found out after 1989), but also that, when faced with the prospect of nuclear escalation, cooler heads would act to prevent it. In a sense, that also proved true, even if it ignored the disastrous consequences if they didn't.

Without giving too many spoilers, the destruction of one of the Soviet Union's major refineries by Islamic terrorists leads the leadership of the Politburo to plot an invasion of Western Europe as a prelude to an invasion of the Middle East. The result is Clancy's vision of how a conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact would go, which is messy. You can see Clancy is trying to suggest that more combat readiness is needed in NATO, but also that, ultimately, he thinks they can, with enough investment, hold their own. He really likes getting into the nitty gritty of both intelligence gathering and the military hardware, and generally is pretty hawkish. The climax brings the story to the brink of nuclear war, which is avoided only in something of deus ex machina political coup in Moscow. The lesson is that a good defence (with lots of defense spending) means a good deterrent.

Despite the two-by-four across the head political messaging about defense spending, this is still a good book. Clancy, whatever his political thoughts, is a compelling story teller and this is an intriguing story of man at war. There's surprise, sudden reversals, courage and even something of a love story (Clancy doesn't do love stories too much, he likes his military toys too much). It still holds up as a story, even long after the politicals have changed.

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Review: Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance

Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance by Jesse Wente
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been meaning to get to this book for some months, but keep getting pulled away. In this book, Jesse Wente offers his story of being an Indigenous youth and adult living in Toronto in the 70s onward. In telling his story, Jesse Wente not only connects with the ambiguities and confusions of being an Urban Indigenous person, but also with the racism that underlies Canadian society. He also gives an insight into media and its attitudes to Indigenous issues and people, through is experiences with the CBC and TIFF. The result is a challenging read (for a middle age white guy like me), but a rewarding one.

What I appreciate about Jesse Wente's writing is his honesty and humour which pervade his writing. His discussion about his struggles with his identity, especially because he lived removed from his family's community, is nuanced and expresses the ambiguities of the move to the cities that many Indigenous people have made. His struggles to promote Indigenous voices in media are familiar to someone living through the 1990s and 2000s, but are painful, especially in retrospect. Wente's point is that Canadian society has to face up to the truth not only of what it has done, but what it is doing in respect to Indigenous peoples, and this book contributes to that challenge.

I recommend this book heartily for those who are trying to understand the experience of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Jesse Wente is both poignant and funny, sometimes at the same time, and this is a really good read.

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Review: All Christians Are Monks: The Monastery, the Parish and the Renewal of the Church

All Christians Are Monks: The Monastery, the Parish and the Renewal of the Church by George Guiver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was suggested to me in a short course on Benedictine spirituality as part of the Diocese of Toronto's Seasons of Spiritual Renewal, which focused on how Benedictine spirituality can feed the spirituality of clergy and lay people alike. Guiver's book, as you might imagine, fits in well with this objective.

In All Christians Are Monks, Guiver consider the development of monasticism and what it is like as a way of life and contrasts it with parish life. As an Anglican monk, he makes explicit connections to the Benedictine influence on the origins of Anglicanism, especially in the formulation and development of the Book of Common Prayer. He also considers with what makes the parish different and unique. He, understandably, tends to prefer the monastery to the parish, which he seems to feel has a different mission. But he offers useful insights into what parishes can learn from monastics.

This book is well worth reading, especially for those who are trying to live out an admittedly modified Benedictine inspired spirituality in the world. He provides much to think about, especially in considering how to bring those insights into parish life.

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Review: The Life of St. Benedict by Gregory the Great: Translation and Commentary

The Life of St. Benedict by Gregory the Great: Translation and Commentary by Terrence G. Kardong OSB
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked up this book over the summer, mostly because I didn't have an edition of the Life of St. Benedict, which seemed odd, given my interest in Benedictine spirituality. Kardong's edition is a good one, with an informative commentary and a readable translation. Kardong gives a good sense of context and structure of the Life, which is really helpful when reading it.

Ancient and mediaeval hagiography can be something of an acquired taste, given the predominance of miracles and wonders which can put off more skeptical modern readers, whose tastes may lie more towards biography and personality. Yet, the aims of these hagiographies are different- focusing on establishing their subject's spiritual power as reflecting God's power. This life is very much in that tradition, focusing especially on Benedict's miracles. Yet, there is much that is human which comes out. Benedict, for all of the efforts to depict him as the spiritual master, has moments of very real humanity- in his reaction to the community which tried to poison him, his interactions with his sister, Scholastica, who summoned a storm to keep him from leaving overnight and his lovely vision of the world towards the end of his life. I can't say that our reading of Benedict is as well rounded as a modern biographer would prefer (this is ancient hagiography, after all), but I think we see the person as well as the saint.

This biography is an excellent one for those interested in the saints and especially in Benedictine spirituality and history and is well worth reading.

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Review: The Life of St. Benedict by Gregory the Great: Translation and Commentary

The Life of St. Benedict by Gregory the Great: Translation and Commentary by Terrence G. Kardong OSB
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked up this book over the summer, mostly because I didn't have an edition of the Life of St. Benedict, which seemed odd, given my interest in Benedictine spirituality. Kardong's edition is a good one, with an informative commentary and a readable translation. Kardong gives a good sense of context and structure of the Life, which is really helpful when reading it.

Ancient and mediaeval hagiography can be something of an acquired taste, given the predominance of miracles and wonders which can put off more skeptical modern readers, whose tastes may lie more towards biography and personality. Yet, the aims of these hagiographies are different- focusing on establishing their subject's spiritual power as reflecting God's power. This life is very much in that tradition, focusing especially on Benedict's miracles. Yet, there is much that is human which comes out. Benedict, for all of the efforts to depict him as the spiritual master, has moments of very real humanity- in his reaction to the community which tried to poison him, his interactions with his sister, Scholastica, who summoned a storm to keep him from leaving overnight and his lovely vision of the world towards the end of his life. I can't say that our reading of Benedict is as well rounded as a modern biographer would prefer (this is ancient hagiography, after all), but I think we see the person as well as the saint.

This biography is an excellent one for those interested in the saints and especially in Benedictine spirituality and history and is well worth reading.

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Review: The Night Watchman

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was a recommendation from an English teacher colleague, which I followed up on. The novel is set on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota in the 1950s at time when the federal government was trying to eliminate both reserves and Indian status. The story follows several characters including the titular character, Thomas Wazhashk, who combines the role as a member of the reserve council and work as a night watchman at the jewel bearing plant on the reserve. The central over-arching conflict is the fight that Thomas must wage to preserve the reservation which, ultimately, includes a trip to Washington D.C., to defend the reservations status. But this novel also has several sub-plots including members of Thomas' family and others on the reservation. Those can be complex to follow, but the characters are fascinating.

The novel itself is based upon the letters of Erdrich's grandfather, who spearheaded the resistance to dispossession in the 1950s. The story reflects the resiliance and resistance of these communities at at time when assimilation was the policy of many lawmakers in both the US and Canada. The novel gives a vivid sense of the time and is well worth rading.

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Review: The Heart of Perfection: How the Saints Taught Me to Trade My Dream of Perfect for God's

The Heart of Perfection: How the Saints Taught Me to Trade My Dream of Perfect for God's by Colleen Carroll Campbell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I ran into this book, scanning the options in Google Books, which touches on my interest in the Christian saints and how they can connect to how to live today. Roman Catholics tend to do this well because of their attention to saints in their spirituality and Campbell does it better than most. This book, as the title would suggest, focuses primarily on perfection and what various saint's lives have to say about that. The book weaves in Campbell's life and the lives of several saints and a few not saints.

What I liked about this book is not only the interweaving of the author's life and struggles with perfectionism, but also the empathy that she writes with when she writes about the various saints and not saints. She doesn't try to hid their flaws- in fact, the flaws created by perfectionism is part of what Campbell is talking about. She doesn't hesitate to talk about how perfectionism appears in religious life as judgement and harshness, but also looks to see what saints do to move away from all that. She provides a very human look at perfectionism, not shrinking from the darker sides, but also looking towards how our faith ultimately helps us rely on God, not our own perfection.

This is a worthy reflection on the guidance that the saints can give through their examples, both good and bad.

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Review: The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been meaning to read this for a while, partly because it is a book which has had some buzz, but also I'm getting interested in how science fiction is manifested in other cultures. The main premise focuses on the interactions between Earth and Trisolaris, which (as is implied by its name) is experiencing the Three Body Problem in reality, as it navigates both Chaotic and Stable periods. The setting starts in the Cultural Revolution in China and follows Wang Miao as he tries to figure out why leading theoretical scientists are committing suicide. In his investigations and playing out of a video game based on Trisolaris, Wang discovers a conspiracy and a crisis.

I really did like this book, but have to concede it isn't the easiest read. Thankfully, I didn't get bogged down in the science very much and I did engage with the characters. But I could see how the book would be a slog. Still worth reading, I think, but not easy.

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Review: Sunrise on the Reaping

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the most recent of the Hunger Games prequel novels, which follows the Hunger Games of Haymitch Abernathy, the eventual mentor of Katniss in the Hunger Games. The story tells how Haymitch won his Hunger Games, while angering pretty much everyone connected to the games and, especially, President Snow. Written in Collins' signature style, we get into Haymitch's head and see how much the games cost him. It explains so much about how Haymitch appears in the main Hunger Games novels as well as the fact that being a victor really is only the beginning of the torture inflicted by the Capital. No wonder he is an alcoholic hermit by the time Katniss comes around.

There's some interesting parallels between Sunrise and the later books, especially the second one. We see some of the older victors in this book, but we also see a similar attempt to break the arena as we eventually see successfully used in Catching Fire. It doesn't quite work, but the attempt becomes part of the games and, actually, helps determine the winner.

This is definitely worth reading and completes the list of District 12 victor stories.

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