2 Minute Book Reviews.

War & Peace (B-)
I’ll be honest. I gave this book my best shot. I started it over Thanksgiving and was going to read it through the holidays and into Christmas. It’s the only thing I tried to read in December and it was really, really tough. The translation I picked up topped out at almost 1,300 pages. Which is a lot but might not be so bad had Tolstoy not swapped back and forth between Russian and French in almost every other paragraph. So the Russian was translated into English, but all of the French was left in the paragraph with asterisks beside it leading me to the footnotes. So I’d be getting a good reading rhythm only to end up buried in the footnotes reading 8pt type. The story itself is good. Not great. But good. I only made it through 400 pages before I gave up. So I’m sure I don’t have a full appreciation for the characters or the irony that Tolstoy was setting up. The story is basically multiple stories of about 20 different people in Russia and all of the stories are interwoven together as their lives criss-cross. So it was very non-linear in that aspect. But very confusing to read trying to follow all of the characters. Plus there are really lengthy discussions of war scenes and battle formations that I grew tired of. Great writing, good story, but poor form. At least for me. The whole thing reminded me of soap opera. With all of the characters either in love with or cheating on or friends with someone else. I probably would have liked it better were it not for the French footnotes and if I had a chart of all the characters and who was related to who so I could keep track. Maybe I’ll pick it up later. But for now . . . 400 some odd pages is all I could do.

Supercapitalism (A)
I dedicated last year to learning more about the economy and globalization. And I swore I wouldn’t pick up any more economy related books. But I already fell into the trap with Supercapitalism. Robert Reich wrote an amazing book on the macro-level ins and outs of capitalism’s history in America. This book is really, really good. And not boring or complicated like most other books with the economy as their subject. His chapter entitled Of Two Minds is worth the price of the book (or my drive to the library). In that chapter he basically writes about how we want cheap prices as consumers and investors but simultaneously want our values and rights as citizens upheld. But for the most part, this is almost impossible to balance. Because we want the best of both worlds. And the problem with injustice in the world as it relates to globalization is not with the big companies (although they play a role), but in our lack of a voice as citizens and our insatiable desire to buy and consume at alarming rates. Great, great stuff. I have excerpts posted here and here. But I definitely recommend this book because of it’s easy-to-read nature and connecting the dots on all of these big issues.

The New Christians (A+)
I already wrote my review for Tony Jones’ new book, The New Christians, here, but I do my reviews of books in blocks of 4. They make the headers look prettier that way. And it matches up with my book a week goal.

Blessed Are The Peacemakers (N/A)
I don’t really know how to rate this book. Not sure you could even call it a book. It’s a whopping 68 pages. With half of it the scriptures that talk about peace. And the other half from a short lecture that Wendell Berry gave on over-confidence. I liked it. But I read it while sitting on my ivory tower if you know what I mean. It’s got some really nice thoughts that I’ll excerpt and reflect on soon. But for the most part it’s just scripture and Berry on peace and confidence. I found it helpful. But nothing too out of the ordinary.