Solstice Wood by Patricia McKillip, Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs

[snugglekitty]

Solstice Wood is a modern-day sequel to Winter Rose. I enjoyed the book - it had moments of poetry, and I liked the Fiber Guild and the way the book ended. Unfortunately, it had too many viewpoint characters, perhaps six or eight. That made things kind of confusing unless you ignored the viewpoint and just tried to follow the story, which is its own sort of confusing. If you really liked the first book, you might want to skip it - it waters it down a bit, in my opinion. It would probably be better read out of order. Three stars.

The new book The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible was oustanding. This book is by the author of Know-It-All, which I have not read but may need to give a try. Mr. Jacobs tries to spend a year following all of the rules in the Bible to the best of his ability. This book is very, very funny, and easier and faster to read than you might think. I also enjoyed my first exposure to the concept of Red-Letter Christians, who like to focus on, well, what Jesus actually said rather than homosexuality and abortion. Faaaascinating. If you're the sort who likes watching the Morgan Sporlock show Thirty Days, or wondering what it would be like to have a completely different life than the one you have, this is the book for you. If you find religion odd, funny, intriguing, or compelling, you should definitely read it. Four stars.

Comments

[clonetwin.livejournal.com]

Know-It-All is fun. You'd like it.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation. :) I'll give it a try once this book is not so fresh in my mind.

[teratomarty.livejournal.com]

Do you own Living Biblically, or should I just request it from the library?

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

I do not own it. I generally read books from the library first, until I know they're good enough to own. I sound snooty, but really I'm just a penny-pincher.

[monicaboston.livejournal.com]

Yay! It's very interesting to read your perspective, not only because you're thoughtful in your book critiques, but also because you're consciously steeped in a non-biblical religious tradition. Thank you for posting this.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

You're welcome - I'm really glad you found this interesting, and compliments are always nice too.