Looking for Alaska, John Green

This book is painful. I don't want to tell you the painful part, because it will ruin a lot of the book, but I do want to forewarn you, that it's not a light happy read.

But if you want an idea of the author's sense of humor, check this out.

The book is designed for high school boys, so there is a certain amount of immature humor. But the characters are believable and the themes dig deep. The story is divided into before and after. Pudge, a nerdy kid with no friends, transfers to a boarding school where he meets Takumi, the Colonel, and Alaska, a remarkable, enigmatic, impulsive--and did I mention gorgeous--girl, who is unfortunately devoted to her long-distance boyfriend. Between smoking breaks and epic pranks, Pudge falls in love with Alaska, or at least the idea of Alaska. He also develops strong friendships which he discovers will survive a senseless tragedy.

I recommend it mostly if you find teenage boy humor entertaining (or want insight into a teenage boy's brain) because otherwise I fear you will find it tedious. But it is a fantastic and thought-provoking book.

The Love That Satisfies, Christopher West

About a year ago, a friend sent me an e-mail asking if I would buy some books to donate to the 'Greatness' (W&M's Theology of the Body group) library.  I ended up purchasing two, and checked this one out of the "library" in January.  It's been my lunchtime reading for the last week - so the book has acquired some field dust and slight apple and raspberry jelly stains, but I'll be taking it back to the 'Greatness' collection when I'm down at W&M for homecoming.

The whole concept of Theology of the Body was foreign to me until college, and as I explained in my last entry (The Jewler's Shop), I'm not the best at understanding theology.  However, Christopher West does a great job of spelling out some really complex ideas about God's love and human love (the subtitle of the book is "reflections on eros and agape").  If I got one thing out of this book, it really made me think.  We are called to live to an ideal, such that our relationships mirror Christ's devotion to the Church.  But the reality is (I'm a very realistic thinker), we fail a whole lot.  It matters most that we keep trying, that we never lose sight of the beautiful, big picture of what God has in store for us.  Our earthly lives are at best a shadow of a heavenly future, and as we seek union with another, we must never forget that union with God is what we seek, in our heart of hearts.

The Small Rain, Madeline L'Engle

Of course I loved this novel. Madeline L'Engle wrote it. I have read most of her novels and I've yet to find one that I don't like. This particular novel tells the story of a girl growing up. L'Engle tends to write coming-of-age stories, and all of them are similar, yet each of them is unique. Katherine Forrester is only 8 or 9 at the beginning, and the story takes up about 10 years of her life. She is the daughter of musicians and is a pianist herself. Her story covers her broken but beautiful family life, her time at school, and her experiences with all kinds of love.

This story was a quick read, fun and tragic by turns. I especially enjoyed the ending, because L'Engle tends not to tidy up too much at the end of novels. I can't think of much to say about it, other than that I highly enjoyed it and have checked out the next novel in which the main character appears.

The Jewler's Shop, Karol Wojtyla

This book came as a recommendation (and a gift) from a good friend on my last birthday.  The Jewler's Shop is a monologue-driven play written by Pope John Paul II back when he was a bishop in Poland.  Its subject is marriage: the three acts present to us three couples, each reflecting on their relationship from different angles and perspectives.  One couple looks at the past and present of their (positive) relationship as they prepare for marriage; the next portrays a couple whose love has faded over the years.  The final act brings the two together, as the (uncertain) children of the marriages from Acts I and II prepare for their wedding.  I found myself reflecting on so many things as I read this.  I am not an aficionado of poetry or theology, or metaphysics for that matter - so I feel like a lot of the words flew over my head.  But the message - I think I got that part, at least a little.

Sometimes human existence seems too short for love.  At other times it is, however, the other way around: human love seems too short in relation to existence - or rather, too trivial.  At any rate, every person has at his disposal an existence and a Love.  The problem is: How to build a sensible structure from it?

At the heart of marriage, as of any relationship, is first complete devotion to God, and a commitment love another, but also to share a deep friendship throughout life.  Marriage is the bedrock of a family, of society; this commitment ensures stability through the roughest days as during the sweetest moments.  It is so much greater, so much grander - and so much more difficult -  than today's society will allow.  And I am always thankful for a reminder, in the midst of a scary, mistrustful world.

The Columbian Exchange, Alfred Crosby

I lied.  In lieu of a much-anticipated Jane Austen novel, I decided to go for another early-Americas pick, The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492.  Motivated by the large font and lengthy endnotes, I decided to follow my previous selection (1491) with a work about the world after Columbus.  It was a quick read, and I enjoyed spending a week of lunch breaks pouring over tales of epidemic disease and wild pigs.

Crosby originally wrote this book in 1973, so most of the statistics are from the 1940s-60s.  The Cold War is still hot; China isn't yet a big player in politics or economics; the total world population is still under four billion.  All the same, the book lays out a good basic overview of primarily biological interchange between the Americas and the rest of the world since 1492.  Diseases like smallpox and syphilis ravaged populations.  Wild pigs, cattle, and horses roamed the Caribbean islands and American plains.  Potatoes, corn, and manioc, from east to west, became some of the most basic staples of the Old World diet.  A little dry, but there's enough subtle humor to keep you going if you're motivated.

As much as I've enjoyed my journey through the contact-era Americas, it's time for a change of pace.  Next stop: theology.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig

I really wasn't sure what I expected from this book when I started, but I know it was not what I got between the covers.

Pirsig tells the story of a journey he took with his son across the country on his motorcycle. At first, he lets the reader think the book is about the journey and a few thoughts he has about "classic" (logical) versus "romantic" (aesthetic) ways of confronting the world. Slowly, however, the reader learns that the story actually chronicles his own past, before he was hospitalized for mental instability. But he doesn't care about his past insanity as much as he cares about his past work in philosophy. Part autobiography, part intro to philosophy, and part philosophical treatise, this book heads out in so many directions, a lesser writer and a lesser thinker would have lost track of his trains of thought, and his readers would have watched them collide.

Instead, he manages to tell the story of the journey, to tell the story of his past, and to introduce the reader to an entirely new system of thought within on coherent masterpiece. I didn't agree with all his philosophy, and I didn't understand all of his philosophy (two problems that, for me, tend to be related), but I enjoyed his book. If you're up for a book that makes you think and keeps you entertained, pick up this book. It is a definite commitment, however; it took me two or three times as long as the other books I've read lately, because it requires pauses to process information and is not a book you can read when tired.