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While I’m not religious, I still found this book compelling and profound.

The first nine books are not, I think, as philosophically interesting as the last three books. Skipping over them would be a mistake. They contain some very beautiful prose about grief, his love for his mother, and his struggles with spiritual questions.

The last three books are very interesting to anyone interested in philosophy, regardless of religious affiliation. His writing about the nature of time in book 10 is especially impressive.

It is quite surprising to note that the author is still working on their MFA at San Jose State university. The book is super compelling read. The story is about two sisters who have a bad experience as very young children in a home that they come back to after 10 years or so and confront their fears. There are ghosts & monsters.

The author transitioned after writing this book (so they go by M. M. Olivas now and not what this book club instance tells us). Do read as it's written by a Bay area author too!

locusmag.com/2024/11/spotlight-on-m-m-olivas/

This was a fascinating read! I was immediately piqued by the subject matter. I had only ever gotten American and European histories in school; it wasn’t until I saw this book that I realized I had no idea about any of the history of the Pacific Islands, Asia, or Africa.

There is so much amazing history packed into this book. The settlement of the Pacific Ocean is something that leaves me in awe at the capabilities of humans.

I was surprised to get the recommendation from an older Indian man (the father of a friend), but I can’t say I regret reading this book. There was a lot of interesting information about various rituals for the plethora of deities in southern India.

There was way less judgement than I expected in a book from this period, written by a British clergyman (though what judgment is in the book is saved for the final chapter). My biggest gripe with the book is that it’s almost entirely about the rituals people perform, and not enough about the mythology of the deities.

I really enjoyed this novel. It’s so different from the movie, but that’s part of what made it so interesting. The darkness of Oz and the Wizard permeated the story, and I liked getting to know the Wicked Witch of the West as a sympathetic quasi-freedom fighter.

The writing can get almost cloying at times, but that didn’t really dampen my enjoyment of the book.

A copy of this very old, very odd (to me anyway) book was given to me by the father of a friend when he was visiting from India. I don’t know why he liked this book enough to recommend it as it seems fairly condescending towards Indian culture, but I thought I’d give it a read because how often are you recommended books that over a century old?

I went down a rabbit hole and found out that there’s a LOT more lore about Oz than I had ever imagined. It got me curious enough, and I saw the movie recently, so I thought I’d check it out. I’ve enjoyed the first few chapters so far!