Aaron > Recent Status Updates

Probably my 3rd try in finishing this book, hope I get it done this time

Reads like an academic paper; it has a somewhat repetitive structure with minimal storytelling. But I think I'll finish because it's short enough.

LKY pulls no punches when describing what he believes will or will not help his people, be that communism or selecting which languages to teach in schools. He weaves his story pretty well.

So far an engaging, concise read. Still waiting on the novel approach to God and evil he purports, but I might be getting ahead of myself

It reads like a textbook, so hopefully I can get through without forcing it too much

Puzo weaves an intricate world, but it takes sooo long for the story to pick up. Like yeah, I get it, she's an Italian widow in New York, move on. No need to spend 15 pages telling me she gossips at noon and misses her husband and her kids don't respect her and Naples was all hills and...

"The more you travel, you come back home, and you feel like you don't speak the same language"

"[Dean Rusk] does not quarrel with our assertion that things are going very badly and that the situation is unraveling. He does not assert that the deterioration can be stopped. What he does say is that the consequences of both escalation and withdrawal are so bad that we must simply find a way of making our present policy work. This would be good if it was possible. Bob and I do not think it is." p.168

"When we experience Christ's radical grace..., it becomes the most intense, foundational event of our lives. Now, when we meet someone from a different culture, race, or social class, we see someone who has been through the same life-and-death experience...we now share an identity marker even more indelible than the ties that bind us to our family, our race, or our culture." (p.319)

It's been such a long time since a book has enthralled me like this. I feel an explosive ending coming up...

It's been so long since I've been enthralled by a novel like this. D