📖 Volkameria's 2026 Reading Log 📖

Name:
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical)
Favorite quote:
Thoughts:

Specific Book Goals
If I'm reading a book that meets one of these goals, the post will be updated with it.

1 Classic book
♦ East of Eden - currently reading!
2 Philosophy books
♥ Training in Christianity - Kierkegaard
♥ Something by Hegel.
(I saw a meme that compared and contrasted these two, and it was fascinating - trying to figure out personally where I am on the absolute/subjective spectrum and I think this would help!)
5 Religion Books
♠
Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human by John Mark Comer

5 Non-fiction Books
♣
The Great Beanie Baby Bubble : Mass Delusion and The Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette
How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist who Outwitted Hitler by Peter Pomerantsev

Happy Reading! 📖

Thank you @genesisdiem! :)

Name: Carl's Doomsday Scenario, by Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2)
Rating: ★★★★
Read as: Physical
Favorite quote: My four-year-old mind couldn’t possibly register it at the time, but it was the scent of happiness, of joy, of being a kid, of not being afraid.
Thoughts: Oh I am *so* excited for all the dangling plot threads from Dungeon Crawler Carl to be expanded upon, and this book really did a phenomenal job of doing so! It fleshed out and matured Donut as a character, and I love what they're setting up with all the other crawlers and the overarching plot. The writing style lends itself well to blink and you miss it plot twists, which can definitely not be everyone's cup of tea, but it makes each new nugget of information feel impactful. Very excited for the next book in the series.

Oops... January was not a good month for reading.

Name: The Great Beanie Baby Bubble : Mass Delusion and The Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette
Rating: ★★★★★
Read as: Audiobook
Favorite quote: A teddy bear, to me, is endless and unconditional love.
Thoughts: I loved this book! It follows the rise and fall of Ty Warner and the Ty company, which made Beanie Babies in the mid-late 90s, and how they went from collectibles to craze. The author touches on why it was Beanie Babies specifically, and not the many other collectibles and tchotchkes marketed during that time. It demonstrates how something that starts out with the purest of intentions can get corrupted by greed, with everyone none the wiser as to why they were collecting them and selling them for so much money. The author describes what happened with the plush toys and the growth of the company in a way that mirrors many modern day bubbles, like NFTs and crypto. Absolutely fascinating, and I even went and bought a Beanie Baby from an antique store after listening to this.

>4 winterhugel: I remember this craze. I received one as a gift, one of those "pick me up" kinds of gifts from a friend. Still have it, but have wondered how and why they became a craze. Seems like someone researched and published that question!

>5 threadnsong: The research into the craze was itself an uphill battle - each time the author tried to talk to a senior executive at Ty, they would renege at the last minute over fear of litigation from Ty Warner. Most of the book's material actually comes from unpublished memoirs and third party sources!

Name: How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist who Outwitted Hitler by Peter Pomerantsev
Rating: ★★★
Read as: Audiobook
Favorite quote: You can identify yourself with the sense of supremacy, but you don’t need to carry any moral burden
Thoughts: An interesting book in the development of WW2 British propaganda against the Nazi party and how its development mirrors propaganda developed during the Russia-Ukraine war today, as well as an autobiography of Thomas Sefton Delmer, the man who spearheaded many propaganda operations. It's a short book, but still manages to put information about Delmer, WW2 propaganda, modern day propaganda, and a bit of Ukrainian history in its pages. As a result, the book tends to be quite meandering rather than spending any good amount of time on one subject, especially toward the end where there's this drive to resolve all these narrative threads. Not my favorite, and probably could have benefited from either more detail on each subject or tightening up the narrative. A decent if somewhat specific survey of its subject matter, though!

Name: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
Rating: ★★★★
Read as: Physical book
Favorite quote: What's to be believed? Or does it matter at all? When mass murder's been answered with mass murder, rape with rape, hate with hate, there's no longer much meaning in asking whose ax is bloodier. Evil, on evil, piled on evil. Was there any justification for what they did—or was there? We only know what that thing says, and that thing is a captive. The Asian radio has to say what will least displease it's government; ours has to say what will least displease our fine patriotic opinionated rabble, which is what, coincidentally, the government wants it to say anyhow, so where's the difference? // "Look at him!" the scholar persisted. "No, but it's too dark now. You can't see the syphilis outbreak on his neck, the way the bridge of his nose is being eaten away. Paresis. But he is undoubtedly a moron to begin with. Illiterate, superstitious, murderous. He diseases his children. For a few coins he would kill them. He will sell them anyway, when they are old enough to be useful. Look at him, and tell me if you see the progeny of a once-mighty civilization? What do you see?" "The image of Christ," grated the monsignor, surprised at his own sudden anger. "What did you expect me to see?"
Thoughts: A deeply mournful and thoughtful collection of 3 short stories, all intertwining with each other, ultimately about the spread and growth of knowledge and the human condition. I found the first story, about the initial discoverer of the fallout shelter, to be a little silly and too focused on setup of the world. The second story expounded on it, with the push and pull of secular knowledge vs. religious knowledge and what happens when they meet, and the third story was the culmination of the cycle of destruction. The third story was easily the best, with several pages dog-eared with meaningful quotes, and it made me cry and think. A slow, beautiful read, docked mostly because I wasn't a big fan of the initial setup. I have many thoughts about this book that I'm struggling to put down - the way the characters interact with uncertainty, with the development of knowledge and art, with death both sudden and unexpected, with disagreements - and I honestly feel like this review does the book a disservice. There is an idea that ties all the stories together, about the spread and development of the faith even after the initiator of some key idea is gone, that resonates with me. If anyone is looking for a story that talks about faith in uncertain times without bludgeoning you over the head with that very idea, I'd recommend this book!

>7 winterhugel: I have heard about this book before and thought about reading it. Your review has made me put it on my wishlist.

>8 craso: Thank you!! This made me smile, I'm glad my stumbling words gave you the impetus to throw the book on your TBR. I'd love to hear what you think of it if you end up reading it!

Name: The Villainess' Guide to (not) Falling In Love, Vol. 5 by Touya, Yoimachi, and Ren Sakuma
Rating: ★★★★
Read as: E-book
Favorite quote: N/A
Thoughts: A fun manga, and a great followup to Vol. 4's cliffhanger! The battle between Saphir + Joshua and Catelya was excellently drawn, and the art is gorgeous as always. It was nice to see the original game rules mentioned again, as a lot of the developments have gone way beyond the original "reincarnated as a villainess in my favorite otome game" premise - not that it's a bad thing, but the story has clearly become its own endeavor and I am here for it. Very excited for Vol. 6 to wrap up the arc!

Name: Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human by John Mark Comer
Rating: ★★★
Read as: Physical book
Favorite quote: Either way, the point still stands: the reward work for well-done in this age isn't a mansion and a Maserati in heaven, as if the best God can do is acquiesce to capitalism's perversion of the American dream; it's more work and more responsibility in God's new world. And that should excite you! Curse-free, exhilarating, satisfying work and responsibility, a sense that what you do is important in the grand scheme of things, even if your work now doesn't feel that way.
Thoughts: Honestly, I didn't think this book was as good as his other books. Part of that is because much of the content in this book comes directly from recent sermons he gave (and as an avid listener of the guy's podcast, there are sections clearly taken word for word), so there's this odd sense of deja-vu.

More than that, though, I think this book didn't quite work for me because it's a broad topic (a Christian relationship with work and rest) that is trying to meet people who love their jobs, hate their jobs, work too hard, aren't working hard, etc. - the entire spectrum of workers - and settling for repeating the same talking points over and over with minimal analysis or discussion *of* those themes. They're good points (don't idolize work! someone's going to be better than you no matter what and that's ok, be the best you can be!), but his breezy writing style does a disservice here in that he's just bringing up a point, using the same metaphors for it, and moving on instead of really digging into *why* we shouldn't be super productive, for example. Not my favorite, not a bad recommendation to someone wanting a modern Christian outlook on work, wouldn't recommend it if you've already read his other books or listened to a few sermons of his.

Name: The Emperor's Caretaker, Vol. 01 by Ichiha Hiiragi, Aya Shouoto, and Haruki Yoshimura
Rating: ★★★
Read as: e-book
Favorite quote: N/A
Thoughts: Eh? I think I really would have liked this when I was reading The Apothecary Diaries because it hits a lot of the same beats. Girl stuck between a rock and a hard place in a fictionalized version of the Forbidden Palace ends up in the Inner Court, and royalty drama ensues as she engages in a will-they-won't-they romance with an attractive jerk. The art is good, the characters are lovable, and I didn't quite see the final twist coming, but... I just wasn't feeling it. In a way, it hits a lot of the same beats as The Apothecary Diaries without expanding on them. It does what it does well, but... I've been thinking about why it didn't land for me, and I don't really have any other words than it just wasn't my thing. The most 3/5 romance manga.

Name: Untethered by Kaylynn Flanders
Rating: ★★★
Read as: Physical book
Favorite quote: N/A, though I always liked reading Ren's vaguely unhinged inner monologues.
Thoughts: Despite the fun characters, the romance subplot being well done, the adventure taking lots of twists and turns, and a palace heist, I kept thinking to myself that this book failed to justify its existence. It's hard to write a sequel to a book that wraps itself up quite nicely (this is the sequel to Shielded, a pretty dang good YA fantasy), and unfortunately the book failed to sell me on why it needed a sequel.

Ren and Chiara and fantastic characters, though Chiara's character development felt a little rushed toward the end of the book. The end of the book honestly dragged on as well - a problem with Shielded too, but more apparent here. It was a book I wanted to like, and really enjoyed reading, but the lingering question of "Why does the sequel exist?" prevented me from really meeting the book where it was at, which is a shame.

Name: The Engagement of Marielle Clarac by Haruka Momo
Rating: ★★★.5
Read as: e-book
Favorite quote: N/A
Thoughts: The author wrote that she wanted to write a fluffy, super generic love story, and she achieved that goal quite well! It's a sweet, fluffy, tropey, paint by numbers romantic comedy light novel in all the best ways. Marielle is a delightful, if repetitive, main character whose sole existence is on fangirling and finding new situations to get inspiration from for her side gig writing romance novels - a stark contrast from her fiance, the no nonsense vice captain of the royal guard. While the majority of the book is tropey, the romantic tension between these two is more than the sum of its parts, and feels very real and tangible (which makes some of the tropey padding tricks seem ill-placed in retrospect)

It's a bit of a shame the series only exists in e-book format; I'd love physical copies. Will probably read at least one sequel.

Name: The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Rating: ★★★.5
Read as: audiobook
Favorite quote: The practice of observing the living world and taking inspirations for human ways of living from its model is an essential element of indigenous science. It embraces the reality that there are intelligences other than our own, from whom we might learn.
Thoughts: A short, inspiring audiobook about a better system of economics based on the reciprocity of nature. The general thesis statement is that we should respect the cycles of nature and make our economy based around mutual care and gifting to encourage relationship building, rather than constant extraction, using the model of the serviceberry (a real fruit I'd never heard of before!) as an illustration.

I found the book came up short with its illustrations and examples. Yes, our current economic system is bad and is leading to untold destruction. But her assumption is that communities will always provide for each other - an assumption that I have not found to be true both personally and from reading history books. Maybe I'm too much of a cynic, but there has to be some form of protection for people who are ostracized from their communities in order to live, and the failure of the book to address that knocked it down pretty significantly in my eyes. Overall, though, a short and interesting book to read, and it gave me a lot to think about!

Name: The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook (Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 3) by Matt Dinniman
Rating: ★★★.5
Read as: physical book
Favorite quote: "I don't know. There's a whole train of people out there, I'm sure someone would love to join up with a healer and two mages. it won't be us, though. We'll never trust each other, and that sucks. It really does. It's exactly what they want to happen, and it breaks my fucking heart."
Thoughts: Another fun romp through another crazy level of the dungeon! I'm glad there was a blurb at the beginning saying to not worry about how the subway map works, though honestly I was still royally confused even after the explanation 2/3rds of the way through the book. Docking it a few points because the big reveals of how this dungeon worked were confusing, and as such the major cliffhangers on each chapter didn't have the same sort of emotional impact as in the previous 2 books. The whole idea of the cookbook itself, and the fact viewers can now see chats, is an amazing plot hook, and I am delighted to see where the author takes it.

Name: Small Favor (Dresden Files Book 10) by Jim Butcher
Rating: ★★★
Read as: E-book
Favorite quote: n/a
Thoughts: I really wish I could say more about the Dresden books, but... I can't. They're enjoyable dark urban male fantasy books with a phenomenal narrator, and always a pleasure to listen to, but heck if I retain or actively care about much of what's in the book.

Name: Conclave by Robert Harris
Rating: ★★★★
Read as: Physical book
Favorite quote: Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty, and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith.
Thoughts: I absolutely *adore* Conclave the movie, and once I found out it was originally a book, of course I had to read it. The book is great: tightly written, with a balance between the main character's inner monologue and the other characters' emotions as each page contains a twist. I loved reading all the little details about the minor cardinals, and how it was so clear the main character views his job as an extension of himself. It follows the events of the movie pretty closely too which is another point in its favor...

...but in terms of the emotional climax, as well as the meta-narrative of faith and certainty, I think the movie handles it much better. Lomeli (the book protagonist) has a rather pessimistic and nihilistic outlook with his doubts. Lawrence (the movie protagonist), meanwhile, has this same outlook but gradually becomes a more hopeful person. The debate between Tedesco and Benitez in the third act in the book is much more straightforward, while the movie injects some duly needed nuance. Also, the book views the final twist as a sort of political statement to be swept under the rug, while the movie is much more gentle with its portrayal.

Overall, the movie is better than the book, but the book itself is still a lovely read (and a short one too, at less than 300 pages).

Name: The Long Walk by Stephen King
Rating: ★★★
Read as: Physical book
Favorite quote: Crowd was to be pleased. Crowd was to be worshipped and feared. Ultimately, Crowd was to be made sacrifice unto.
Thoughts: Never read a Stephen King book before, and after hearing very good things about this one figured I'd give it a shot. The premise is fascinating: in an alternate history, dystopian America, there's a national sport where once a year, 100 teenage boys walk until they go insane and/or drop dead until only one is left. We follow a group of these boys during one of the walks and get into their heads and individual psychoses as the physical limits of walking 4 miles an hour all day every day with no breaks hit them.

Honestly, though, it wore thin halfway through the book. I wanted a bit more self reflection and horror on why anyone would even do this in the first place and the world where something like this was commonplace and even celebrated. The horror that was there stemmed from each of the boys being a jerk in some way or another, or failing to realize something that was plainly obvious. I didn't feel spooked at any point (except with this delightful paragraph about the crowds of people being perceived as an eldritch god, *that* was cool!!), I mostly felt annoyed with each boy. Also there's a lot of random asides about women's underwear and boobs that come out of nowhere? I think I would have enjoyed this more if I was able to really understand the boys, but each was uniquely offputting so I kinda shrugged all of them off.

Not sure if I'll try Stephen King again, but I can sorta see why people like his body of work.

I read your Stephen King Review. Sorry you didn't have a really great experience with this one. His earlier books had more horror in them. I would suggest, if you are going to try him again that you go for "IT', "PET SEMATARY", (yes, that really how it is spelled on the book.) or "CHRISTINE".

>19 Carol420: Oh interesting - Christine looks right up my alley, I'll check that one out. Thanks for the recommendation!

>20 winterhugel: You're welcome. If you like movies, all three of those are on DVD.

Ooooh, a new reader to Stephen King! I will also recommend "The Shining" and "The Stand," though the latter is about a plague so trigger warning. And I like the book "Shining" better than the movie, for all of the latter's accolades over the decades.

>22 threadnsong: Stephen will always be the "Master of Horror".

>22 threadnsong: Oooh, The Stand looks delightful. Thanks for the heads up on the content and for the recommendations! Eager to give him another shot soon. :)

Name: The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss
Rating: ★★★★
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical) Audiobook
Favorite quote: The power of the bookstore doesn’t just emanate from the books, the architecture, and the staff. Customers also make the space. Neither home nor work, these “third spaces” function as critical sites for intellectual, social, political, and cultural exchange. They nurture existing communities and foster new ones. They are de facto public spaces, gathering spots. They cost nothing to enter. People often just want company.
Thoughts: I loved hearing about all different kinds of bookstores - from niche independents to big box stores to warehouses and everything in between! So many fascinating details and facts, and I had no idea just how much bookstores contributed to American history as a whole. For example, there were Nazi bookstores and Jewish bookstores in Hollywood that essentially engaged in guerrilla warfare in the mid-late 30s and 40s, and gay bookstores supported Stonewall. Listening to the book made me want to open up my own little bookstore (despite the fact I am blessed to be near not 1 but 2 independent bookstores).

Note that if you listen to the audiobook, there are some re-recorded sections in Chapter 11 that sound truly atrocious from an audio quality perspective. That's pretty much the only reason I didn't give this a 5 star review.

Name: The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming by Henri J. M. Nouwen
Rating: ★★★★★
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical) Physical Book
Favorite quote: People who have come to know the joy of God do not deny the darkness, but they choose not to live in it. They claim that the light that shines in the darkness can be trusted more than the darkness itself and that a little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness. They point each other to flashes of light here and there, and remind each other that they reveal the hidden but real presence of God.
Thoughts: A short, lovely meditation on Rembrandt's painting of the Prodigal Son and how it reflects spiritual maturity in the Christian life. The Prodigal Son has been a favorite parable of mine, and the book reflects ways of interpreting it I hadn't thought of before. Nouwen writes with a delicate care, each word picked with a loving precision, and there were many times I had to stop and really think about what he wrote and its implications. Throughout the book, he emphasizes the unconditional love and compassion God has, and what that actually looks like through the three phases of spiritual growth (the "returning home" of the younger son; the "frustration and maturity" of the elder son; the "justice and unconditional compassion" of the father).

It's clear that Nouwen thought through, and still struggled with, many of the concepts he wrote about in the book, and it gave me much to think about and apply to my own religious journey. Highly recommend, and would probably return to this book in the future!

Name: That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation by David Bentley Hart
Rating: ★★★.5 (Rounding up to 4)
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical) e-book
Favorite quote: The most effective technique for subduing the moral imagination is to teach it to mistake the contradictory for the paradoxical, and thereby to accept incoherence as profundity, or moral idiocy as spiritual subtlety. // A belief does not merit unconditional reverence just because it is old or because its proponents claim a divine authority for it that they cannot prove; neither should it be immune to being challenged in terms commensurate to the scandal it poses.
Thoughts: David Bentley Hart is one of the most recommended Christian Universalist scholars, with this book being considered his magnum opus. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did - which might seem strange given I rated it a 4 star review. The book taught me a lot, not just about arguments for Christian Universalism, but also a bunch of neat new words (panoply! sophistry! limn!) and the formulation of philosophical arguments in general. While it was hard to follow mostly because I don't have a philosophy background, his arguments are enjoyable to read, if perplexing and difficult to fully grasp.

His lack of thorough explanations and dismissing many common arguments as being "beneath him", though, made it a frustrating read overall.

Name: The Diamond Throne by David Eddings
Rating: ★★★
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical) physical book
Favorite quote: No real favorite, but a lot of the banter is quite good.
Thoughts: A good classic high fantasy book. I enjoyed the interactions between the characters, which made up for the fact I had a hard time keeping all the different names/geography straight (though, honestly, so much has been going on personally that's probably half the reason why). It's not high art or anything - it's high fantasy with Marvel movie-esque dialogue, and if that's your jam and you want a good fun fantasy romp, I recommend it! Sparhawk makes for a great protagonist, and I like his dynamic with Sephrenia.

Name: When The Crow's Away: An Evenfall Witches' B&B Mystery by Auralee Wallace
Rating: ★★★★★
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical) physical book
Favorite quote: The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but without them there would be no way into heaven at all.
Thoughts: A delightful hug of a book! Auralee Wallace's cozy mystery duology really threads the needle between being cozy without delving into cloying twee - the emotional turmoils and stakes in each novel are real but never detract from the overall sense that everything will be OK, even if OK doesn't quite seem like how you'd want it to be. Her attention to details and descriptions without being overbearing remains top notch, and this book was exactly what I wanted to read right now. If you're cozy mystery curious, you can't go wrong with one of her books.

Name: Sonic the Hedgehog, Volume 12: Trial By Fire by Ian Flynn
Rating: ★★★★
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical) physical book
Favorite quote: N/A
Thoughts: In a bit of a reading slump, but that's what fun comics are for! I read a good chunk of the current IDW Sonic comics last year and enjoyed them, so am catching up on the remaining volumes this year while I get my reading mojo back. While I have my own misgivings regarding certain characterizations (as anyone would have for a series as long running and swapping as many writers as Sonic), the comics are just a colorful and enjoyable delight. The focus on the female side characters here was super fun, and I like how they're developing Amy and Jewel. Excited to get the remaining volumes and see how they deal with the new robot threats.

Name: The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 4) by Matt Dinniman
Rating: ★★★★
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical) physical book
Favorite quote: Still, you could do that. You could take a terrible situation and still find moments of peace, even joy.
Thoughts: More Dungeon Crawler Carl, more fun and wild shenanigans! As I go through more of the books, I'm having a harder time visualizing some of the areas they adventure in - the books are a fast enough read sometimes I wonder if I'm missing some key element (especially toward the end where they flooded one area and teleported people out of several disparate arenas.)

Even with that issue, though, I found this book to be a fun romp that somehow continued to raise the stakes. The author is incredibly good at setting up (and subverting expectations!) on plot twists, so I never know what to expect. Very eager to continue catching up.

Name: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Rating: ★★★★★
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical) audiobook
Favorite quote: “Grumpy. Angry. Stupid. How long since last sleep, question?”
Thoughts: After watching the movie (10/10 movie) I had to go read the book, and the book is even better! I love the deep friendship between Grace and Rocky and how both adopt each other's mannerisms over time. I love the attention to detail and problem solving, and how it's easy to follow along with Grace's train of logic. I love how grief and joy and despair and hope are all given breathing room in situations where one or all of them are present. And the narrator! Phenomenal job! I can't express just how delightful I find this book. If you haven't read it yet, try out the audiobook for sure.

Name: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Rating: ★★★
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical) Physical
Favorite quote: N/A.
Thoughts: I was cautiously optimistic about this book, as someone with a guilty pleasure of snarking on fundamentalism. But it didn't quite hit the way it does for a lot of other people, and I think a lack of elaborating on the religious background of the main character mixed with odd details really took me out of the book. For an example of weird details, the author specifies the main character goes to a Whole Foods in Idaho 15 minutes outside of her rural house, which is impossible to do as there is only 1 Whole Foods in all of Idaho located in downtown Boise. Another weird example is that the main character, for all of her fundamentalist upbringing, never nails down what sort of church or personal beliefs she actually has, which makes everything feel very... fundamentalist aesthetic, instead of actually digging into how X interpretation results in Y outlook and ergo Z behaviors. Given that a lot of tension between the main character and her family comes from her family unlearning awful, toxic behavior while the main character doubles down on it, it would have been nice to actually see how they were raised.

Also, that ending was garbage and I stand by it.

However, in terms of thriller/horror content, as well as writing a truly awful main character, I adored the book. The author is excellent at manipulating her characters, and seeing everyone's struggles start impacting each other even when the characters themselves couldn't see it was nerve wracking and exciting. I just have a hard time actually recommending this book, because it's wholly vibes based and falls apart once you start asking questions/looking at plot holes, but the vibes are quite good.

Name: The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell
Rating: ★★★ (More like 2.5)
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical) Audiobook
Favorite quote: In everyday life, if we could not only tolerate the discomfort, but wholeheartedly embrace our own lack of expertise, then we might have a far better chance of showing others the same grace.
Thoughts: First of all, great narration. It's read by the author, who adapts words to fit the medium (referencing "audiobook" instead of "book" when talking about the current text), talks conversationally during light parts and analytically during heavier parts, and was a delight to listen to overall. Unfortunately, that's about all the praise I can meaningfully give this book.

There's a review on goodreads that starts "If you thought you’d get a non fiction about the current state of chronically online overthinkers, this is not it." Rather than a discussion of the brain-fried, terminally online American millennial/gen Z population, this is more of a loose collection of memoir-like essays tied back even more loosely to various social psychology concepts, like the zero-sum game and survivorship bias. Each essay follows a pattern of "Here's an event from my life. Here's the social psych concept it's like. Here's a bunch of random articles talking about the social psych concept. Here's what I learned." All the articles are picked relatively randomly, and there is no real analysis. If you made a drinking game out of taking a sip each time she wrote "A study showed that..." with no followup, you'd be drunk by the end of the first chapter. She introduces the concepts, but does absolutely nothing with them, with each chapter ending with the written equivalent of a shrug.

Also, she lost me when she wrote "I wanted to know what ChatGPT's capacity for human understanding was, so I asked it" and then proceeded to take its response at face value.

Don't bother, honestly.

Name: Radical Kindness: The Life-Changing Power of Giving and Receiving by Angela C. Santomero
Rating: ★★★★★
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical) Audiobook
Favorite quote: Of course, interacting with others isn’t always easy or fun. As philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in his play No Exit, “Hell is other people.” But what he failed to mention is that heaven is other people, too. The loving relationships we forge with others make our lives worth living. So, we owe it to ourselves and to our loved ones to nurture those relationships with kindness.
Thoughts: One of my favorite books this year! It's a short audiobook (3.5 hours) and I read through it in a day when I was going through a rough patch. I thought this was succinct and clear. I find that a lot of self-help books, whether secular or not, fail to define their thesis term and just march on treating it like a hammer for every nail. Angela acknowledges what "radical kindness" actually is, and how it is expressed to yourself, to others within your social group, and to others external to your social group - and even addresses the natural question of "how do I practice kindness to those with antithetical viewpoints/those who actively wish me or others harm?" It's short, sweet, actionable, and clear. Seriously considering buying a copy for my bookshelf to better reference.

Name: My Name Is Hope: Anxiety, Depression, and Life After Melancholy by John Mark Comer
Rating: ★★
Read as: (Audiobook/ebook/physical) Physical book
Favorite quote: N/A
Thoughts: I usually like John Mark's stuff, but this misses the point in some truly egregious and downright damaging ways. Another reviewer mentioned that this came out in 2011, before he went back to therapy, had a vocation change, and took significant time to review his own theology before writing The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry in 2019 (one of my favorite modern theology books), which is good context to have before going in to this book or any of his other stuff.

His thesis is that anxiety and depression are symptoms of deeper issues, and you need to address the deeper issues first even if it's more difficult.

On one hand, there's a lot of truth to this, but he completely ignores the fact that, for many people, anxiety and depression are just chemical imbalances with no real rhyme or reason - and for a lot of people, it's both! Without a rigorous background in mental health or health in general (he casts doubt on depression being due to chemical imbalances, for example, and only cites one study to back that up). He paints with a very broad brush and often veers into victim blaming/"it's your fault" language for people actively suffering. And his actual prayer advice is trite at best; if you are suffering from clinical depression, he advocates to pray correctly, read Psalms, and then stop worrying about it. That's it. After illustrating people wrestling with God with examples from Job and Lamentations, that's his advice?

Also, the fact he wrote "Some people love Jesus but don't like the church. Ok. Stay broken. Stay mad, bitter, and angry. Stay depressed. It's your choice." is absolutely mind boggling.

Avoid. I'm mad I spent the 2 hours to read this short book, as I feel lesser for it.