Book Review: Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions by Rachel Held Evans

Rachel Held Evans had been on my radar since maybe the late 2000s due to her being a feminist Christian writer who was respected by literary and Christian online acquaintances of mine. Rachel is probably best known (even outside of Christian circles) as the woman who followed all the instructions of the Bible to the letter for a full year. I've been slowly buying her books when I come across them in thrift stores, etc. This one I bought on Book Outlet. (LMK if you wanna join; I get invite credits). 

Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions is I think her first book; it was originally called Evolving in Monkey Town with the same subtitle. The Scopes monkey trial took place in Rachel's hometown in 1925 and acts as a neat metaphor for what the book is about: belief, doubt, politics, and fundamentalism. She wrote it after years of wrestling with her conservative evangelical Christian upbringing in the Bible belt and the doubt she experienced as an adult. Book summary: 

Eighty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial made a spectacle of Christian fundamentalism and brought national attention to her hometown, Rachel Held Evans faced a trial of her own when she began to have doubts about her faith.

In Faith Unraveled, Rachel recounts growing up in a culture obsessed with apologetics, struggling as her own faith unraveled one unexpected question at a time.

In order for her faith to survive, Rachel realizes, it must adapt to change and evolve. Using as an illustration her own spiritual journey from certainty to doubt to faith, Evans challenges you to disentangle your faith from false fundamentals and to trust in a God who is big enough to handle your tough questions.

In a changing cultural environment where new ideas seem to threaten the safety and security of the faith, Faith Unraveled is a fearlessly honest story of survival.

This book wasn't exactly fun to read, but I did enjoy reading it. It's refreshing to read a Christian writer who doesn't flinch away from the problem of pain and the other big questions, who isn't content with just accepting the traditional pat answers. When many Christians are asked the difficult questions, they are far too likely to, like Aziraphale in the beginning of Good Omens, say "it's ineffable" and refuse to think about it. I liked how Rachel described fundamentalism: as having the same beliefs, but held so tightly that one's fingernails gouge marks in one's palm. Consequently, they are afraid of change, and will do anything to keep the status quo, including turning to politics to hold on to power. 

Rachel, a pastor's daughter, went to Christian schools and college where she and her classmates were taught to be Christian apologists and debaters, concerned more with winning souls and dunking on nonbelievers than they were about determining what they really believed and if they believed it. Rachel's crisis of faith was relatable, and I felt for her. She also includes some short chapters about other people she knows and their approaches to faith and belief. This book doesn't have a neat ending, but then life and belief don't. This book is all the more poignant because Rachel passed away a couple of years ago. She was only a few years older than me.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: May 7-8
From: Book Outlet
Status:  keep for now

Cover notes: I like the cover, although the monkey won't make sense until you read the first chapter about the Scopes monkey trial.

Trigger warnings for this book: described beheading, murder, domestic abuse mention, misogyny mentions, abortion mentions, religious abuse, bombing mentions, US war in the Middle East mentions, hypothetical torture mentions  (hell), fundamentalism, Christian-centrism, Islamophobia, that view of Christianity/Jesus as the only pathway to salvation, related topics

Book review: Becoming by Michelle Obama

I received Michelle Obama's memoir Becoming as a Christmas gift from my parents. It will not surprise you to hear that I didn't read it until last weekend during a road trip. Requisite Amazon summary, even though we all know what it's about:

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. 

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.

Reader, it was just that good. Michelle looks over her life and shares it with us, including the bad alongside the good, and the personal and sometimes embarrassing alongside the triumphant. She went to Princeton AND Harvard Law School! I mean. I was already thrilled that we share a first name, but our elementary schools also have the same name! I loved getting these glimpses into her life, and how honest she was about her struggles in her marriage and her role as FLOTUS. You really see the sacrifices that the Obamas went through during Barack's presidency. Michelle has really made so many efforts, time and time again, to make the world a better place and inspire girls to reach their goals and fulfill their dreams. I love her. I loved this book. Read it.

"Am I enough? Yes I am." ~Michelle Obama

Score: 5 out of 5 stars
Read in: late March
From: gift
Format: hardcover
Status: keep

p.s. This is my 200th blog entry!

Book review: Palimpsest by Gore Vidal

I was not planning on buying Palimpsest from the library booksale, but once I started reading it I had to. It is Gore Vidal's memoir about his life, based more on his memories as they come than on historical facts. Gore, who died a few years ago, came from a political dynasty family (Al Gore is a distant cousin; Gore Vidal dropped his first name to go by his mother's and father's surnames as a teenager) and was related by marriage to the Kennedys. He was also friends with fellow gay writer Tennessee Williams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Leonard Bernstein, and countless other literary, political, and Hollywood luminaries. His life story isn't really told chronologically, as he shares memories as they come to him, like when you're talking to someone and they backtrack. Far from sounding absentminded, Gore Vidal's voice is steady, sure of himself, sometimes serious and sometimes delightfully bitchy. I read this expecting to read lots of zingers and shade, and I was not disappointed.
A palimpsest is "a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain", according to the dictionary. It's a term I came across in library school, and that's what attracted me to this book. At turns funny, sad, and explicit, I'd recommend it if you like old Hollywood and literary gossip or have read every other Kennedy book out there and want something from another perspective. I enjoyed it but won't be keeping this one.

Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Read in: mid April-late May
From: the library booksale
Format: paperback
Status: giving away

Book reviews: mostly fantasy

I have so many books, you guys. I'm not keeping any of the books below (except for the ebook obvs).

The Secret of Platform 13, by Eva Ibbotson (late February)
This was a cute fantasy story in the vein of Roald Dahl etc. If you've read other books by her then you'd know what to expect (I don't think I have, but the name is familiar to me). The title doesn't have much to do with the story, but I liked it and the characters. I gave it to my dad to give to our local thrift store, but I'm not sure that he has yet. 4 out of 5 stars

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (March 1. Yes, it took me less than one day to read)
AAAAAAAUUUGHGHHGHGHHHHHHHH
They need to teach this book in schools, alongside Brave New World and 1984. Are they??? Why aren't they??? This is like if the Quiverfull movement took over the US. Everything I'd read about it was like "It's still relevant for our times" but I WASN'T PREPARED FOR HOW RELEVANT IT IS. READ THIS BOOK. ATWOOD IS A GENIUS. 4/5 stars simply because it kind of f*cked me up

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen (March 1) *SOME SPOILERS*
This book is a fairytale retelling (my favorite genre) of Sleeping Beauty obviously, but in the Holocaust. The protagonist realizes that her late beloved grandmother's version of the Sleeping Beauty tale she told her growing up was actually a clue to her mysterious past. Lots of promise since I kind of like mysteries. JY is a giant in the fairytale retelling/fantasy genre so I knew it would be good as well as sad due to the setting, but in the end I didn't really like this. The protagonist is college-aged (19-21, I don't remember) but the way she and the book is written, she feels much younger. And there's a shoehorned romance kind of thing with her boss who is like 35? Nope. Plus, while we established that her grandma was Briar Rose in a concentration camp, we never found out who she really was (amnesia due to the gas from the chambers). 3/5 stars

Warriors #1: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter (first half of March)
This is the first in one of those multibook multiseries for elementary/middle school kids that are basically the only way to write/publish books nowadays. It was a free ebook and I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. It's your basic "everyman kid joins a new clan/army/order/fightclub/whatever and while there's suspicion about this outsider, he's accepted, both grudgingly and not. Then he discovers a political plot or The Truth about what they've been told all their lives or w/e and has to save his new home/people and he's The One" but with cats who live in clans in the forest. The political intrigue was actually pretty great, as was the worldbuilding (I can't believe I'm writing this about a book about wild cats). The made-up vocabulary (these books always have new words and dialects etc.) wasn't that corny at all, from what I remember. I actually want to read the rest of them to find out what happens. They're both familiar and refreshing. Recommended for yo' kids (and you obvs if you roll like me). 4/5 stars