Having finally finished one of my two ongoing book reviews (pause for cheering), I can now pick a new review to start. Also, I now seem to be only a few chapters from the end of Walking Disaster, which, even at the rate I go, means that at some point in the just-about-foreseeable future I should (hey, let’s think positive here) also finish that one and be able to pick a second new one to review. So… what should be next on the agenda?
The first one’s simple enough; years ago, I came across a second-hand copy of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, and decided that this absolutely needed a full-on snarkreview. Then Walking Disaster came up as an option because I had the idea of doing it in parallel with Jenny Trout’s review of the companion book, and Deciphering The Gospels because Price donated me a free copy, and so both of those ended up jumping the queue. Having finished one of those, I can now finally start TMWSHF, so that’s the one that’s next up.
As to which book should replace Walking Disaster when the joyous time comes that I complete that as well, I have an entire list of options in mind. Here, as best I can remember (and no doubt I’ll remember something else after hitting ‘publish’), is the list of books I’d potentially like to deconstruct/snarkreview at some point:
- Midwives – Chris Bohjalian (about homebirth/midwifery in the US)
- Lila – Robert Persig (sequel to his more famous Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, and not nearly as good)
- The Little Voice – Josh Sheldon (supposed to be about self-actualisation or some such, seems to be largely ‘privileged guy whinges about stuff he doesn’t want to do’)
- Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas – James Patterson (badly-thought-out romance novel)
- Beyond Choice – Don Baker (dreadful and fortunately obsolete anti-abortion book)
- The Daughter Of Time – Josephine Tey (a re-examination of the Princes in the Tower case which, while a vastly better book than some of the drek on this list, could definitely do with some re-examining of its own)
- The Surrendered Wife – Laura Doyle (never actually read this, but it looks worth a takedown)
- On The Historicity Of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason For Doubt – Richard Carrier (self-explanatory, but do note that this one is not going to be any time soon, as I definitely need a change of pace at this point)
- Too Good To Be False – Tom Gilson (apologetics book)
- The Unexpected Legacy Of Divorce – Judith Wallerstein (a research project on the effects of divorce on children; I want to write about why I disagree with her widely-cited conclusions)
Readers, I would love to hear what thoughts you might have here. It’s not a vote; I’ll pick when the time comes based largely on convenience/practicality/how I feel at the time. But there’s some wiggle room there and I’d still be interested to know if anyone has any thoughts on any of the above. And I’d also be interested to know if any of you have had moments of looking at a book and thinking ‘If only some skeptic would volunteer to take this book’s argument apart; I would so like to read that!’ because, well, I make no promises, but I’m at least somewhat open to suggestions. What say you?
Have you considered a series on a book you respect?
I came of age when there was a lot of argument about whether women could “have it all.” I dedicated my life to proving that we could. Fifty-some years later, I am retired, and would describe my working life as Woman, Wife, Mother, Lawyer. It was a good life, and is a great retirement. Now I see the push for trad-wives as the same argument come to life again. Would love to see a take down of some literature from that bunch of so-called Christians.
I still greatly enjoy The Daughter of Time, but when I started looking at Tey’s evidence about a year ago I found that her version of the events wasn’t quite as clear-cut as she made them out to be. Tonypandy in particular seemed to be dealt with in a very government-friendly light. But even the historical events are not without controversy. For a fun bit of trivia, Rex Stout admired this book quite a bit and we learn in Death of a Doxy that Nero Wolfe removed Thomas More’s Utopia from his office shelves after conducting his own investigation into the case of the missing nephews.
I know you’ll make your own choice, but I’d love you to take it on. I haven’t looked at her source yet, which was apparently Clement Markham’s 1906 book, Richard III: his life & character, reviewed in the light of recent research but that one is on my list to read at some point.
The Daughter of Time is the only book on your list I’ve read; I’d be very interested in seeing it reexamined.
Reviewing “Too Good to be False” might be a good way to expose how religious (or at least Christian) apologetics “works.”
A review of the book about divorce might also help, in a time when there seems to be a resurgence (real or faked) of old, obsolete ideas about relationships, marriage, parenting, etc.; especially if that book’s conclusions are “widely cited.”
Anyway, that’s just, like, my opinion, man…
Hooray! Hello again, everyone, it is great to be back! And thanks: I really appreciate all your thoughts.
@Pierce R. Butler, #1:
Nah, that’s just boring. 😊
More seriously; if you look back, I’ve reviewed some books I respect, but there’s way less to say when I’m not picking all this stuff apart. I like doing (relatively) short reviews on why I like the books I do like, but for sheer satisfaction nothing beats the detailed takedowns of everything that’s wrong with the trash piles.
@rweiss, #2:
Congratulations on a life well lived! Did you have any book in particular in mind? Also, if you haven’t already read it, you might like https://whencowsandkidscollide.blogspot.com/ which has done several of those types of reviews (the author is a Catholic, but strongly against any form of fundamentalism). Sadly, Samantha P. Field’s blog and Libby Anne’s Love, Joy Feminism both seem to have gone.
@flex, #3:
(boggle) Do you know that, even after reading a lot more about the Richard III story and realising how many of Tey’s claims didn’t stand up to investigation, it never occurred to me to look into the Tonypandy story to find out whether she was representing that incorrectly as well? Well, colour me unsurprised and weirdly satisfied to hear that.
@Steve Morrison, #4:
OK, that puts ‘Daughter of Time’ in the majority as the only item so far with two votes, which I hadn’t expected. Duly noted!
Minor practical problem: It’s almost the only one of the above that I have on Kindle, and I was actually hoping to do some of the ones I have in hard copy so that I can get rid of my copies, so DoT was low on my list for that reason. That said, the advantage of doing one that I have on Kindle would be that I could work on it wherever I have computer access, so I could easily add bits when I have a few minutes free at work. It’s still not that high on my list, but might be good to work on it alongside others.
@Raging Bee, #5:
‘Too Good To Be False’ actually takes a different tack from the other Christian apologetics I’ve seen; the argument is that Jesus’s character as described in the Bible was so amazing that no-one could have invented something so perfect. I don’t know whether that would make it more or less interesting to you.
I realised that Wallerstein’s research has actually been looked at elsewhere, so probably lower priority for me, though I’d still like to do it.
‘Too Good To Be False’ actually takes a different tack from the other Christian apologetics I’ve seen; the argument is that Jesus’s character as described in the Bible was so amazing that no-one could have invented something so perfect. I don’t know whether that would make it more or less interesting to you.
Okay, I think you just summed up everything we need to know about that book. Thanks.