"The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky

So I haven’t read Russian literature since high school… I mostly picked up this book because it was huge and stood out to me. Wheee…

In case you did not pick up on this from the title, the story follows the 3 brothers Karamazov. Dimitri is the oldest, Ivan, and finally Alyosha is the youngest. Dimitri is motivated by worldly things like money and the women that he loves. Ivan is more philosophical but detached, he thinks a lot but doesn’t really implement. Ivan ends up rejecting God because of all this useless suffering in the world (but an interesting note is that he could only come to this conclusion because he loves people). There is a lot of inner turmoil with him. One of my favorite scenes was him conversing with the devil, it shows his psyche and how he knows that it is degrading but avoids it. I don’t know, that was just a fascinating scene since I had no idea what was happening most of the time. Then there’s Alyosha, who was a monk, and is motivated by his love for his brothers and the people around him. He largely reacts to events around him in a way that is influenced by his time spent as a monk.

You can probably see where this is going. But the resulting saga combines a courtroom mystery with an intense drama with musings about life, among other things. It encompasses many topics, and while it centers around Russia and Russian life, it by no means is exclusive to it.

The ending is ambiguous with regards to the fates of Ivan and Dimitri. But it seems optimistic that they both will be redeemed somehow. The book comes out strong for religious force and love in spite of skepticism and the hate that is rampant among us. One must continue to believe in spite of these things, otherwise your faith has no meaning.

I enjoyed reading this more than I thought I would. The characters are original and vivid, with distinct and endearing personalities. Even the minor characters stand out clearly. And while there are some parts that require you to think, you find yourself wanting to do it so that you understand the scenes better.

I’m not usually into classics, but this one turned out to be an enjoyable read, if heavy at times. I don’t know, maybe I secretly am into intense Russion novels. 

"The Invisible Orientation" by Julie Sondra Decker

So as you may or may not know, I identify as asexual, but I realized that my formal knowledge of asexuality was rather limited so picked up this book to fix that. It turned out to be a really interesting read, regardless of whether you’re ace or not.

There’s discussions of what asexuality is, which includes various sexualities and romantic identities that fall under the asexual umbrella. (A few examples: demisexual, lithoromantic, aromantic, etc…) Decker then continues to discuss what the asexual culture is like (there’s a lot of jokes about cake mostly), the hardships that asexuals face, how allies can help, and further resources for more information. It is very comprehensive, there’s a lot of information included here.

One section that I personally appreciated a lot was the discussion about how there is this myth that asexuals are not discriminated against. Decker systematically pulls this apart and examines all the various ways that asexuals are at a disadvantage in our society currently. There are more that you would expect!

There is also a really good section specifically for allies and how they can help! Being an ally is important people!

It can get a little repetitive regarding things that you should and should not say to an asexual, but having said that it is a good idea to pound that into people’s heads so it is not necessarily a bad thing.

A really informative book, I know that I will definitely be checking out some of those resources that Decker recommends.

"Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren

I picked up this book because it’s basically my future. My plan is to get a job in a lab and do science work forever, so I thought that this would be a nice sneak peek from someone who has done it.

She story involves a lot more struggling to get funding and live off of a professor’s paycheck, which I didn’t really expect. Somehow I thought that people like her would have an easier time with it. Especially if you read the back cover and realize how many awards the author has won, if she had a hard time the rest of us don’t stand a chance.

But throughout the entire thing she just seems so happy! I hope I find a great friend and lab partner like her, and get a dog. Honestly that’s all that I need. Her writings have a ton of unbelievable and hilarious anecdotes, she clearly has a sense of humor and knows how to convey it.

Chapters alternate between stories about her life and information about plants and how they work. The two parallel each other, so when she’s talking about plant sex she follows it with stories about when she was pregnant with her son. It makes for interesting and informational reading. The science portions are written for non-scientists, so anyone can understand the concepts and learn a little from the book.

Having said that, you would never know that she was not a full-time writer, the whole story is integrated very nicely and her voice is amicable and clear throughout the whole thing.

Of course the impact of being female and in the sciences is highlighted, that aspect is often ignored in my experience. Many communities, not just the scientific one, need more of a discussion about the gender biases present in it. I feel like the science community sweeps it under the rug since they have “more important science-y things to do” but this is really a conversation that needs to happen and needs to happen now.

But probably the best part of this book is that it highlights what makes being a scientist so great, which is what I really need some days.

The Complete Peanuts 1953-1954 by Charles Schultz

I get a kick out of reading those complete anthologies of early Peanuts comic strips. The characters looked so different in the early days (especially Snoopy). We often forget that things like comics that are published fairly frequently for a long time go through many developments in the process, and chocking out these old comics really throws you for a loop.

Some characters even disappear, like Shermy and Charlotte (she only appears at the end of this collection). I have no idea what happens to Shermy as he seems like a fairly main character who appears pretty frequently.

What’s interesting about this year is that it introduces Pigpen as a character, and Linus as a baby. You can tell that Linus is more philosophical already, his development into the character we know and love is well on its way.

Another interesting thing about old comic strips is how you can tell that the conventions around comic strips were very different. The first line of the Sunday comics is just a throw-away joke since it sometimes wasn’t published with the rest of the comic. The Sundays are also unique in that they can have a different plot from the dailies, since not all newspapers would print both.

So it’s probably not the best of the Peanuts; there’s still some growth to be done. What’s really nice about this though is getting to see where it started and where it’s going.