What I Read in January: The Best of Books, the Worst of Books
No, I didn't read A Tale of Two Cities-why would you think that?
I think that it would be beneficial to write short reviews on some of the books I read each month. A few of the writers who I follow do this, and I greatly enjoy it. I hope you find the same enjoyment. Thanks to
and for inspiring me.Also, one more thanks to Jack for the idea of a rating system of stars. This works smoothly for me because I track all of my books on Goodreads and so I can just copy my rating from there. If you want to keep track of my reading habits, send me a friend request here.
Without further ado…
Oh, actually one more thing. The rating system
★★★★★—Five stars is the best of the best. Definitively a book I want to come back to sometime and that I would recommend anyone put on their reading list.
★★★★☆— Four stars is quite good, probably even good enough for a re-read someday, but for some reason or another it couldn’t quite rank with the greats. (Maybe the author overused adverbs or something.) I would recommend this to most people
★★★☆☆—Three stars is good, but I would not recommend this book to many people, unless it was for a specific reason. I would probably not ever re-read this, unless I was having some existential midlife crisis.
★★☆☆☆—Two stars was not a good book. There is not much more to say. I would not read again or recommend it.
★☆☆☆☆—One star is objectively (by my lofty standards) a horrible book. One that I wished I hadn’t read, and better yet, wished that I had purchased a hard copy so I could burn it.
That is my rating system, I will include this at the end of every upcoming “books I have read” post.
Sorry for the delay, but now, without further ado…
The Way of Kings — ★★★★★
Written by Brandon Sanderson
I have already written an article on this last year, you can read that here. However, this is a fantastic book that you should read if you enjoy fiction.
The American Way: Family and Community in the Shaping of America — ★★★☆☆
Written by Allan C. Carlson
This book was pretty dense. It had a lot of good factual information in it, but the writing was bland. I know a book like this isn’t supposed to be exciting, nonetheless the narrative could have been more appealing. I really had to force myself to finish this one.
The title pretty much sums up what the book is about.
The Kill Order — ★★☆☆☆
Written by James Dashner
Ok, so I was very… no, extremely disappointed in this book. So disappointed that I will not be reading any of the other books (other than the original trilogy that I have already read) in the series.
The first book (and movie) of the Maze Runner series is spectacular. The plot and world-building was magnificent. The idea of someone being trapped in a maze that they could not escape is thrilling, now put an interesting plot to overlap that and you have a good book.
The last two books of the series were alright, and I finished them because I was still on a high from the first book. They degraded into a zombie thriller with mediocre writing, but I liked the characters so I wanted to make sure they didn’t all die… and then the one of the best characters just happened to become infected, so that was dumb, IYKYK.
I will probably read the first book again someday, but just for childhood nostalgia.
Ok, The Kill Order. This is a prequel of sorts, apparently showing how the Flare began. It was pretty terrible. The plot was slow and redundant, I didn’t like any of the characters, and the only reason, I guess, one would read this is for the gruesome parts. Which isn’t a good reason to read a book per se.
Oh, yeah, and James Dashner forgot how to write in this book. The writing was also terrible.
Brave New World — ★★★☆☆
Written by Aldous Huxley
I read this because it is pretty popular in the conservative community. Personally, I should not have started reading it as a fiction book and instead started reading it as a political book. It simply shows how man, without God’s post-millennial plan, will naturally aspire (wrong word, decline is better) to mere survival of the fittest. The smartest and strongest having the most comfort.
The book was predictable for its genre, but at least I can say I read it.
1984 — ★★★★☆
Written by George Orwell
So, apparently I had a political dystopian reading-kick in January. I am better now, thanks.
1984 was much more enthraling than Brave New World. The story was much more interesting and the characters were less one-dimensional than in Huxley’s book.
It had a similar story archetype to Brave New World. It follows a man named Winston who knows basic math, you know, the 2+2=4 type of stuff. And it ends with Winston believing in postmodernism, you know, the 2+2=5 type of stuff.
Essentially, it shows how a deep state, when correctly set up, can simply control and manipulate a whole society. Orwell does this masterfully while also crafting a good story.
I would recommend this to most people over the age of 17, for, um, reasons.
How the World Runs — ★★★★☆
Written by Kevin Swanson
I had to read this for school, and I am glad I did. It is a basic books on macro and micro econmics. I don’t know if I will come back to it, because I will move on to more advanced literature on this subject. Regardless, I am glad I read it.
Reflections on the Existence of God —★★★☆☆
Written by Richard E. Simmons III
Yeah, it was about as technical as the author’s name.
The book was a bunch of essays on God, Christianity, and natural order. I worked on the book for several months but I didn’t quite make it through. It was pretty dry.
I think it would be a good book for the analytical type who doesn’t know much about Christianity.
Elantris — ★★☆☆☆
Written by Brandon Sanderson
If you didn’t catch my drift from the first review in this post, I really like Brandon Sanderson’s writing.
And so, I was about as disappointed in this book as I was in The Kill Order.
To be fair, this is his first book he wrote, and if I am to compare it to my first book (which I am currently writing) I have no room to speak.
However, I am not comparing this to my first book.
The story was slow and the female protagonist was kind of bratty—no one wants that. With all the other stories that Sanderson has written I think you should just skip over Elantris.
The War of the Copper Kings — ★★★★☆
Written by C. B. Glasscock
Glasscock follows the story of three mining companies and their rise and falls, and explores the corruption of powerful men.
Butte, Montana, (which I live relatively close to) was named the richest hill on earth due to its vast copper—amongst other metals—mines. Naturally, this brought sharks who valued money over everything.
It was interesting to me because it is some home state history, but also because the greed of man is insatiable. Without a bridle it consumes everything, even life.
The Unabomber Manifesto — ★☆☆☆☆
Written by Theodore Kaczynski
Terrible. For all the mail Ted Kaczynski sent he sure did not get very good at writing.
He pretty much laid out his thoughts on how technology is bad and how overpopulation is bad. And so, the solution is less technology and less people.
He tried. God still won.
The Dip — ★★★★☆
Written by Seth Godin
Short and sweet. The whole book can be summed up as follows. If you start something make sure it is something you want to finish. After you get over the starting high, the trudging low will come and most people quit then.
Don’t quit. Push through. Beat the dip… finish this post, Austin…
It was a fun motivational book. Probably will never read it again.
Thanks for reading all of that. I hope you add a couple of these books to your reading list and skip the bad books I read for you :)
Leave a like if you have read any of the books, and leave a comment if you have any thoughts on them. Thanks again for reading my reviews.
Good review.
I really want to read "1984."
Very nice review system! Since you've done a nice review on these books, I am going to also count these books as having been read by ME! I've always loved CliffNotes versions. Thanks