2024 Book Review Part 1

A book review for half of the year, giving me a just little more space to reflect on each book. More put together than 2023 for sure. As usual please let me know what you read and let’s discuss!

Crime and Punishment 

Ok, so we have started out the year with a Dostoevsky, greatness of course. This is one of those books you’re assigned in high school but your brain isn’t fully developed to appreciate it. And I think because reading his other books first (Brothers Karamazov) I adapted to his writing style and got more out of the reading this time around. Crime and punishment is suitable for all readers who are interested in the psychology of social decay: crime, theft, murder, prostitution, it’s all very Russian but applicable of course. Raskolnikov journey and those of all the characters introduce us into the psyche of the powerless, the destitute, the forgotten and the criminals. Yet Raskolnikov crime is a particular one, motivated in huge part by an intellectual argument. And throughout the novel we see his argument fail in front of a greater one. It is a really well structured ‘debate’ (I guess) between the two. If you read this book let me know, I want to discuss your ideas of greatness or a life well lived, how we internalize our moral failings, suffering (in life, as virtue, to what ends), and the role of women in this novel. 

Wide Sargasso Sea 

This is a book I picked up at Half Price Books (great bookstore by the way, shout out Texas) and I’m not particularly sure why. It’s a prequel and a feminist response, to Bronte’s Jane Eyre (which I have not read). I think it was because of the setting in the Caribbean and female insanity that made me purchase it. It is always interesting to read writing about the female mind from a female writer, especially given the era of Brontë/Rhys and the success of their books. It's also about the decline of the white colonial class in the Caribbean and a little girl wrapped up in the anger and distrust of the fallout. She grabs at the life of the English upper class, or rather it grabs at her, and it only causes deeper fissures within her. A very quick read, with beautiful descriptions. If you read this book I want to discuss with you the white imagination vs the colonized one, and the basis for anger/disgust as well as love, how formidable these are and what can they produce within us. 

A House Made of Dawn 

I usually am not that good of a reader of visual descriptive writing, my mind kind of skips over and I am not sure why because it is putting me at a great loss. This book was very good practice for me to slow down my mind and read the descriptions again and again. And because it is so rich with them, the book becomes very silent but so magnificent to the mind’s eye. Land, which is of course holy and revered by Native Americans, takes the fore-front of the novel and feels, truly feels like a painting. The plot line is out of order, told from different perspectives, the characters themselves do not speak too much to each other, mostly self-dialogue. All again making the book so silent, and what is deeper than silence? If you read this book I want to discuss with you ideas of home, religion (I have a very loose idea about connecting Islam with Native American spiritually), land, leaving and returning.

Letters to a Young Poet

This is a collection well suited for anyone considering writing, and even those who aren’t (but it might make you a writer at the end of it). Rilke is giving us keen, caring insights into love, God, loneliness sadness, all these serious complexities of life, which I personally found so helpful to the journey(s) I am on currently. He is asking his young pen pal to embrace the difficulty and solitude of life. Even more, encouraging him to pursue both, the latter especially, in favor for the development of a full center in which creative processes can then start. Of course his writing is very poetic (duh) but it is also very tender and sincere. Over a hundred years ago and maybe even more relevant to today. If you read this book let us discuss how we think Rilke is on the doorstep of Islam, how to incorporate solitude into our lives, the weight of life in an Islamic sense, and the need for creativity or production (there is an argument against it that my mind always comes back to and I want to flesh out the counter-argument).

The Jakarta Method 

I usually stay away from non-fiction, my reasoning usually being non-fiction makes me angry and fiction makes me hopeful. But it is important to be angry and knowledgeable about the world, so we can understand our place in it and our duties to each other. Also to become self-critical, reflecting on the systems we may be replicating and furthering. This is such a great body of work, so much energy and time and travel and research expended to collect the facts and stories, piecing together the causes and effects of the CIA and its mass murder machine, but also an even older, broader look to world history. And how unknown to me it all was! I mean it’s almost embarrassing for me to have only really known the cliche “ the CIA destabilizes countries”. It is important to mark the graves, know the names and stories, and the hows. This is a very bloody empire we live in and it is crucial to be aware. I appreciate the depth into the complexities of really simple motivations: greed and power. If you read this book let us discuss how we will take down the US Empire, what nationality is and does for us, how to create international (or even in-nation) solidarity movements that withstand. 

The Holy Quran, accompanied with The Study Quran

This Ramadan was my first time completing the Quran Alhamdulillah, so it will always hold a special place for me among the years. With the tafseer, not just translation, I felt a richer understanding of the religion I claim to know. I highly recommend The Study Quran, it gives different explanations from important ulama and goes into those differences. It also accompanies each surah and most ayahs with historical accounts of the Prophet’s (pbuh) life. It draws together larger ideas, connecting together ayahs within the line by line tafseer, and it also has essays at the end further expanding on the more complex ideas. All in all my most fruitful read this year and one I hope to undertake in the years to come, inshallah. If you would like to read these as well during Ramadan, reach out to me and please join my Ramadan khatma group chat. We discussed ayahs and ideas every day for each juz and it led to very productive conversations, I learned a lot and it kept me on track, Alhamdulilah. And I plan to continue this next year as well inshAllah.

Behind the Door 

This is a book by an Italian author, which is the primary reason why I grabbed it. Also in a used book store, so not my first choice but it was old (which is necessary for me) and I am appreciative of Italian literature (see Baron in the Trees in the 2023 booklist). Each country's literature, English, Russian, American, Nigerian, Indian, etc, takes on a particular flavor that of course is reflective of culture and history even when un-intended by the author. And I like the Italians. Ok the book: well it's one story, told from the perspective of a young school boy (he is 16 but feels much much younger). All simple events, yet so large of course in a child’s mind, culminate into a climax which marks a harsh demarcation in the boy’s life. It reminds me of how complex a young mind is even more so than adults, and how impressionable. Simple writing at its finest (again so Italian). If you read this book I want to discuss with you the loneliness and psyche of adolescence, those middle and high school classrooms, how intense they were! Also what innocence is to you, along the lines of gender because this a book about male adolescence and puberty so let us also consider the girls, the role of the family in this (maybe some Oedipus-Complex-esque questions as well haha), and what are the things that come out in us, or are bred in us during the struggle of adolescence that is sometimes hard for us to bear, in other words what do we shy away from within ourselves.

The Short Stories of Tolstoy 

So I have Anna Kerinana staring at me in my bookshelf but I always considered Tolstoy as a writer I would get to at some point. I also picked up this book as a last resort in a bookstore This is a common theme: a little bit into the year I made a decision to only buy used books, one because they are made better, they feel more authentic, are better for the environment, and also it brings me to read books I had not planned to. I always considered Tolstoy maybe somewhat staley, and now I have been so awed. I think Hadji Murat is one of the best short stories I have ever read. It is set up so beautifully and is so heart wrenching. And I did not know Tolstoy to be a religious man, but almost all of these stories have deep religious morality at its heart. I think Tolstoy was basically a Muslim, he denounced the authority of the church, saw Christ as a prophet more than as a God, had deep respect for Islam, and believed in the soft heart of the believer being closer to God and bringing more good in the world than priests and high churches. A Muslim fr! I will be reading more of his writing, sometimes the greats really are the greats and I wish literature to always aim for the high standards they have set. Also Russian literature, such a great flavor! If you read this book we must discuss your favorite short story because each is encompassing of a moral and it will shine a light on to you, let's discuss our fears and hopes out of death, what makes a true pious person, religious corruption, asceticism (and Islam), what we think prompted each story in Tolstoy’s minds, and we must discuss Tolsoy’s language, how he makes the heart tender enough to be affected to such degree. 

The Second Message of Islam and Toward an Islamic Reformation

So I know the name of the first book is kind of funny but he just needed a marketing intern. This is a religious philosophy book by the late Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, a prominent Sudanese religious and political figure in the 70s/80s and the founder of the Republican Brotherhood in Sudan. Contrary to the title, Taha was laying an argument within Islam based on the Quran and the Sunnah that was based much on the first messages of Islam, the ayahs revealed in Mecca. It has very interesting arguments and ones I think that many of us use today, for example why we ban slavery of concubinage now when there are ayahs in the Quran accepting it as a part of society, and then he takes these arguments even further and into even different aspects of society. We know that the Quran pushes us to higher ideals, and Taha outlines the values we should adopt to become better muslims individually and socially, ones that may look different than 600 A.D. And it is a clear response to the brutal ‘shariah’ implementations in Nimery’s reign. Toward an Islamic Reformation is written by Abudllahi Al-Naim who is also part of this movement, but this book is a law argument. It is detailing how to build a governing system based on the Quran and Sunnah wgich would guarantee protection, fairness, due process to all citizens. It’s a great book to read if you’re interested in law, the pitfalls of Sharia fundamentalism, and the creation of “shariah” and the major madhabs in Islam. If you read these books let us discuss Sudan, past and future, free will and determinism, pluralism in Islam, authoritarianism in religion and in government, rights and limitations in religion and how they translate to a society/nation, and all the ways we wish to educate ourselves on our religion so become less susceptible to one version or agenda and become equipped to usher in a better future. 

If Beale Street Could Talk

My second Baldwin book, and there will be more soon InshAllah. The cover of my book had blue on it and I think I came to associate it with the story, how blue is soft, familiar, tender, quietly solemn, a great accompaniment to black, which is endless, almost a shade of it. There is so much tender love in this book, it's gentle, it touches everything like color. I have so many favorite quotes I wish I had the book on me to share some. And it’s also about being a person, that hard thing we try to avoid but have to do each day. You get the sense everyone is like this big vastness and they're keeping together somehow, doing it with one another, and some fail at this. Ok one quote: “We don’t know enough about ourselves. I think it’s better to know that you don’t know, that way you can grow with the mystery as the mystery grows in you. But, these days, of course, everybody knows everything, that’s why so many people are so lost.”  If you read this book I want to discuss what are the things and people in your life that give you personhood, that draw the outline of you out for you when you can’t see it, let’s discuss nightmares, absolute blacks in the world we do not want to face, and let’s face them though our dialogue and see if we can help each other through. 

Palace of Desire 

Sequel to Palace Walk. Well I am in Egypt now, I wonder what Mahfouz would have to say to the current state of affairs, probably much because he also was a chatter haha (many many books and short stories). I feel like I know the central family so well, like I am a part of them especially with this second book. The family is such a perfect allegory to explore the hopes, wounds, desires, delusions of the country all coalescing in triumphs and defeats. In the first book we saw the first pushes against establishments of family, society, and a cracking of gildedness. Now in the sequel we witness the fast decline of those establishments, of innocence, and a struggle with the fall into a dark underbelly of self and society. If you read this book let's discuss how with every line the English translation struggles, and fails, to encapsulate the eloquence of Mahfouz’ Arabic, the establishments we’re breaking and setting in our lives, the cities were from and how we reflect them/and them us, the grandeurs that have been broken for us in life, and what role do we play in our families and societies. 

Of Mice And Men

My want for another Steinbeck. There’s many short stories and collections on this list, possibly because my taste was moving a lot this year, or there’s some specific ideas I’m searching for, or both. Short stories are a quick bite of an author’s writing style and most of the time you can get the “gist” of what they’re about, why they’re writing. I didn’t even know this was a short story with the fame it has, but the recognition does make sense for this small and great work. It reads more as a play, which is intentional I believe, but with the description and omnipresent view of a novel. There are archetype characters, which sometimes authors who rely too dearly on and other authors who set or add greatly to them. Here is an example of the latter. Each character has few lines, especially the minor ones but you get a deep sense of them. Men (and one woman!) grappling with loneliness and powerlessness in a harsh environment, how do dreams grow and how does one hold onto them. If you read this book let's discuss hopes, our struggle for our own, and the hopes of others we may be toppling over in the process, how in power we feel to achieve them, where we got this power, and how we hold onto that too.

The Collected Essays of Alice Walker 

The first story in this collection made me a pescatarian (90%) again, so we can see how easily influenceable I am. Walker is a true writer, being one of the biggest American writers and thinkers, but also another chatter haha. And this may mean you do not agree with everything she believes, but you can appreciate the thought that it took to get there, the sentiments more than the conclusions. That said, there was much I did agree with (obvious with the diet change). It’s a look into 90s Black intellectual thought and events and of course it’s auto-biographical so it’s a very intimate closeness with the writer. So great for those wanting to be writers themselves. There’s journal entries, essays, critiques, news and travel journalism, and many elements that paint a picture of Walker’s perspective, motivations, and the world around her. If you read this collection let us discuss Walker’s spirituality, movements past and present, how your self-reflection/self-criticism process takes place and how it’s changed over the years. Let’s try writing journals like Walker for a day and see what we come up with!

The Idiot*

The asterisk is because I have not finished the last chapter as I was traveling and it was too big to take with me. A friend suggested I download it on my phone, which is a bad idea, it makes your eyes hurt and ruins the experience. But ok, here we are with another Dostoevsky. I feel like me and the guy are friends at this point, I talk about him so much. I really like the premise of the book. I think Dostovesky is starting out where all great writers start with: a question and a philosophy to attempt to answer it. The question here is who is the truly good man? And as expected, he using the philosophy of a christian mysticism which holds suffering, patience, and kindness as its main virtues. The characters are very Russian and very Dostoevsky, large, numerous monologues, all struggling with nihilism, alcoholism, social ruin, love (obsession) with a woman, something or the other. I love reading Dostoevsky because he is always interested in the why’s, the intentions/motivations of even the smallest of actions, and this is so suitable to someone like me who is always questioning the same. Interesting to read after Brothers Karamazov, which is his last and most magnificent, so here you see his ideas on the verge of that magnificence. If you read this, let us discuss the good man and our own philosophies that we will employ to answer that question, the Christian philosophy used here and theorize what an Islamic counterpart would look like. It’s my belief that suffering and meekness as virtuous in of themselves is very Christian and I believe Islam has different central values, let us think! Also can we find books by Muslims which also analyze social decay/dysfunction with empathy and care, promoting Islamic morality? 

**On my list for the next half of the year: 

A re-read of Song of Solomon, more non-fiction, more Tolstoy, more random reads, Gogol, Kurt Vanneughut, perhaps Austen or Dickens, one recent-ish contemporary novel (pray for me), science fiction maybe Octavia or a re-read of Hyperion or something similar. Send book recommendations! Thank you for reading, till next time :)