Summary:
In Jesus in Our Wombs, Rebecca J. Lester takes us behind the walls of a Roman Catholic convent in central Mexico to explore the lives, training, and experiences of a group of postulants―young women in the first stage of religious training as nuns. Lester, who conducted eighteen months of fieldwork in the convent, provides a rich ethnography of these young women's journeys as they wrestle with doubts, fears, ambitions, and setbacks in their struggle to follow what they believe to be the will of God. Gracefully written, finely textured, and theoretically rigorous, this book considers how these aspiring nuns learn to experience God by cultivating an altered experience of their own female bodies, a transformation they view as a political stance against modernity.

Thoughts:

Summary:
How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people--as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents everywhere, as the cognitive science of religion has shown. But it isn't easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work incredibly hard to make gods real and that this effort--by changing the people who do it and giving them the benefits they seek from invisible others--helps to explain the enduring power of faith.

Drawing on ethnographic studies of evangelical Christians, pagans, magicians, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann notes that none of these people behave as if gods and spirits are simply there. Rather, these worshippers make strenuous efforts to create a world in which invisible others matter and can become intensely present and real. The faithful accomplish this through detailed stories, absorption, the cultivation of inner senses, belief in a porous mind, strong sensory experiences, prayer, and other practices. Along the way, Luhrmann shows why faith is harder than belief, why prayer is a metacognitive activity like therapy, why becoming religious is like getting engrossed in a book, and much more.

Thoughts:
Very good but academic overview than ethnography. Which is what I signed up for lol. I really liked the comparative religion angle of this one. The part where she compares different cultural ideas of God within the same religious sect was super cool to me.

Summary:
How does God become and remain real for modern evangelicals? How are rational, sensible people of faith able to experience the presence of a powerful yet invisible being and sustain that belief in an environment of overwhelming skepticism? T. M. Luhrmann, an anthropologist trained in psychology and the acclaimed author of Of Two Minds, explores the extraordinary process that leads some believers to a place where God is profoundly real and his voice can be heard amid the clutter of everyday thoughts.

While attending services and various small group meetings at her local branch of the Vineyard, an evangelical church with hundreds of congregations across the country, Luhrmann sought to understand how some members were able to communicate with God, not just through one-sided prayers but with discernable feedback. Some saw visions, while others claimed to hear the voice of God himself. For these congregants and many other Christians, God was intensely alive. After holding a series of honest, personal interviews with Vineyard members who claimed to have had isolated or ongoing supernatural experiences with God, Luhrmann hypothesized that the practice of prayer could train a person to hear God’s voice—to use one’s mind differently and focus on God’s voice until it became clear. A subsequent experiment conducted between people who were and weren’t practiced in prayer further illuminated her conclusion. For those who have trained themselves to concentrate on their inner experiences, God is experienced in the brain as an actual social his voice was identified, and that identification was trusted and regarded as real and interactive.

Thoughts:
Soooooo good so up my alley. It's def just an ethnography so if you don't want to read a kinda dense book about Evangelicals then it'd suck. But I DID want to read a dense book about Evangelicals and I was so fed. This book is specifically about charismatic Evengelicals, the type that speak in tongues and stuff. Deeply fascinated by their conception of God. Like it's so individualized that God sends signs to tell you what color shirt to wear.

It all seems kinda fun until they start talking about demons and how people believe in demon possesion and everything. Just so interesting these people are totally normal folks but then every sunday they're exorcising demons. I saw that with no disrespect either, I with I had that level of belief in me lol. The only thing I wish was addressed more was the very conservative politics of Evangelicals. I think the charismatic churchs the author was in lean more left compared to others, but still. How can people believe in a supremely loving God and alsoooooo if your gay your going to hell?

Summary:
A journalist describes an assignment in the mountains of Alabama which led to his spiritual journey into the world of holiness snake handling, a faith whose followers characteristically place themselves in life-threatening situations.

Thoughts:
Veryyyyyyyyy interesting. I need to see one of these snake handling churches before I die. I do wonder though if half the spiritual experiences described in this book are live music. Like the transcendant amazing out-of-body feeling the author describes sound to me how I feel in a good mosh pit. Anyways, the faith these people have is enviable. Nothing matters to them but God it seems.

One issue I do have with this book is the author is weird about the south. There's a lot in here about him discovering his southern roots and the rich culture in Appalachia. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, I'm literally from Apppalachia, but he really glazes over all the bad parts of the south in favor of some imagined noble past. He's very good at ignoring the questionable morals of people I guess. Like he starts going to these churches and befriending these people AFTER he learns that their old pastor tried to kill his wife with rattlesnakes. And he brings his young wife and daughter. Okay.....

Summary:
The only member of the original mission to the planet Rakhat to return to Earth, Father Emilio Sandoz has barely begun to recover from his ordeal when the Society of Jesus calls upon him for help in preparing for another mission to Alpha Centauri. Despite his objections and fear, he cannot escape his past or the future.

Old friends, new discoveries and difficult questions await Emilio as he struggles for inner peace and understanding in a moral universe whose boundaries now extend beyond the solar system and whose future lies with children born in a faraway place.

Strikingly original, richly plotted, replete with memorable characters and filled with humanity and humor, Children of God is an unforgettable and uplifting novel that is a potent successor to The Sparrow and a startlingly imaginative adventure for newcomers to Mary Doria Russell’s special literary magic.

Thoughts:
My bestie Emilio Sandoz is back. I think I'd read anything about this guy I love him. This book isn't as good as the first, but still quiet lovely. More of a focus on "Do the ends justify the means" and forgiveness and such. I found the ending message very moving.

This one does have an issue the first one has where Russel gives characters an ethnicity and then 50% of their personality is explained as, "Well they're from X". In the first book it was like okayyyy maybe cause this is about first contact, but in this one it's just annoying.

ALSO I think if I was assaulted by aliens for months, and all my friends died, and I ate babies, and killed my kinda-kid, and lost faith in god it would take more than a year or two to recover and date. But idk maybe that's the power of an italian mafia princess. No hate to Gina tho I like her.

Summary:
Rob Bell's bestselling book Love Wins struck a powerful chord with a new generation of Christians who are asking the questions church leaders have been afraid to touch. His new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, will continue down this path, helping us with the ultimate big-picture issue: how do we know God? Love Wins was a Sunday Times bestseller that created a media storm, launching Bell as a national religious voice who is reinvigorating what it means to be religious and a Christian today. He is one of the most influential voices in the Christian world, and now his new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, is poised to blow open the doors on how we understand God. Bell believes we need to drop our primitive, tribal views of God and instead understand the God who wants us to become who we were designed to be, a God who created a universe of quarks and quantum string dynamics, but who also gives meaning to why new-born babies and stories of heroes and sacrifice inspire in us a deep reverence. What We Talk About When We Talk About God will reveal that God is not in need of repair to catch him up with today's world so much as we need to discover the God who goes before us and beckons us forward. A book full of mystery, controversy, and reverence, What We Talk About When We Talk About God has fans and critics alike anxiously awaiting, and promises not to disappoint.

Thoughts:
BORINGGGGGGG. Might be a me problem tho. It's all fine it's just very very very surface level stuff in my opinion. Like God is nice and such... and don't be anti-progress. There was a nice part about God being pro-progress and meeting society where it's at which explains the stuff in the Bible that's quiet evil as relatively progressive for the time. What a nice thought. I get why people like it like it's fine apologetics I think I'm just too deep in the religion hole so I was very bored.

Summary:
In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet that will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question what it means to be "human".

Thoughts:
No book has ever been more up my alley than this one. Priest main character, sci-fi, amazing cast of characters that are all domestic and lovely, loss of faith, insane ass side plots, debating the problem of evil, it has everything. I love Emilio like he's a real guy and I've never seen feeling abandoned by god shown so well. It's like when you grow up in religion, and remember how it felt to believe, and how bad that hurts when you can't sustain faith any longer.

Only complaint is I read this cause I saw someone say it was an uplifting story, which I don't know about all that. The start tricks you with the lovely friendships and relationships and domestic bliss. Truly some of the best frienships I've ever read. But then you get flashbanged. Shockingly heavy on the sexual violence.

But just amazing book and there's a sequel I'm so hyped.

Summary:
I'm still trying to make the dream possible: still might finish my cleaning project, still might sign up for that yoga class, still might, still might. I step into the shower and almost faint, an image of taking the day by the throat and bashing its head against the wall floating in my mind.

Thirty-year-old Millie just can't pull it together. Misanthropic and morose, she spends her days killing time at a thankless temp job until she can return home to her empty apartment, where she oscillates wildly between self-recrimination and mild delusion, fixating on all the little ways she might change her life. Then she watches TV until she drops off to sleep, and the cycle begins again.

When the possibility of a full-time job offer arises, it seems to bring the better life she's envisioning - one that involves nicer clothes, fresh produce, maybe even financial independence - within reach. But with it also comes the paralyzing realization, lurking just beneath the surface, of just how hollow that vision has become.

Thoughts:
Reminded me of when I tried to watch The Office and I couldn't because it made me too sad that everyone hated each other. There is some comedy, but it has a sort of millenial vibe. Nothing wrong with that, just not for me. I liked when she said, “My pits are slick, and my face smells like a bagel.” And I liked when she went to visit her loving parents. Other than that I read this very quickly so I wouldn't need to be sad about office workers anymore.

Summary:
"1798, France. Nuns move along the dark corridors of a Versailles hospital where the young Sister Perpetué has been tasked with sitting with the patient who must always be watched. The man, gaunt, with his sallow skin and distended belly, is dying: they say he ate a golden fork, and that it’s killing him from the inside. But that’s not all—he is rumored to have done monstrous things in his attempts to sate an insatiable appetite… an appetite they say tortures him still.

Born in an impoverished village to a widowed young mother, Tarare was once overflowing with quiet affection: for the Baby Jesus and the many Saints, for his mother, for the plants and little creatures in the woods and fields around their house. He spends his days alone, observing the delicate charms of the countryside. But his world is not a gentle one—and soon, life as he knew it is violently upended. Tarare is pitched down a chaotic path through revolutionary France, left to the mercy of strangers, and increasingly, bottomlessly, ravenous."

Thoughts:
Going through a weird 17th century french guy phase reading this right after Perfume. This book is kinda Tumblr, which I say with love. Something about the writing style and the general historical changes. It's basically, "What if Tarare was a traumatized bisexual guy." And I ate it up. They even made him less deformed than historical accounts lol. Kinda confused why it starts with a framing device it abandons half-way through, but I'll forgive it.

Summary:
"In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War," then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle.

Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father--an ardent pacifist--and his grandfather, whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and those settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son.

This is also the tale of another remarkable vision--not a corporeal vision of God but the vision of life as a wondrously strange creation. It tells how wisdom was forged in Ames's soul during his solitary life, and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten."

Thoughts:
Super calming book. Almost too calming cause I kept forgetting what I had read and having to re-read it. But it's a sweet book, more introspection than plot.

The grandpa's history as an aboltionist was the most interesting part to me. AND the story about the horse in the hole. That was so funny like what.

I wish it leaned more into the struggle of someone who wants to believe in god but can't. That's such a fascinating struggle but it was raised and not resolved. Maybe that's the point, not to resolve it, but I wish it was at least discussed more.

Summary:
"An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity."

Thoughts:
Silly little book. Felt like a fairytale. Lots of messed up stuff happens but it's told so fancifully I wasn't freaked out. So well written that even when the plot got kinda random I was still invested. I've never read a story where a charcters motivations are just, "He's evil" lol.

Summary:
"From the rubble-strewn streets of U.S.-occupied Baghdad, Hadi--a scavenger and an oddball fixture at a local café--collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. His goal, he claims, is for the government to recognize the parts as people and to give them proper burial. But when the corpse goes missing, a wave of eerie murders sweeps the city, and reports stream in of a horrendous-looking criminal who, though shot, cannot be killed.

Hadi soon realizes he's created a monster, one that needs human flesh to survive--first from the guilty, and then from anyone in its path. A prizewinning novel by "Baghdad's new literary star" (The New York Times), Frankenstein in Baghdad captures with white-knuckle horror and black humor the surreal reality of contemporary Iraq."

Thoughts:
You know the books going to be good when the first pages are a list of all the characters so you can keep track of them. There's so much happening in this book, but it works. TBH the characters aren't even that hard to keep track of. And all of them are lovely. Elishva and Hadi are my favs. They're two older people living in Baghdad and I want to read books just about them and their lives. Hadi felt very real, and I liked how he just wanted enough money to drink and have fun. His sadness at the death of his straight-laced bestie added to him. I want to read about their livessssss. Elishva I was really fond of, and was sad when the book moved away from her POV. I have a soft spot for eccentric religious characters lol.

My favorite thing is learning about the minutiae of a different time/place, which this book does great. I feel like I really got a glance into daily life in Baghdad. All the characters made the neighborhood feel alive. There's some great commentary about war and the cycle of violence that creates with the monster too. Also I liked the nods to the original Frankenstein, with the monster being a monologuing melodramatic dude, and the book starting as a story someone else is telling.

Summary:
"In 2024, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.

Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.

When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind."

Thoughts:
Good book, well written and everything, just didn't grip me. I think I'm still burnt out on dystopia from when I only read dystopia in middle school lol. I felt like the plot was kinda slow until the middle of the book, and even when the action began it was slightly repetitive for me. The characters are all nice, I like Zahara the best. I wish we could've gotten to know more about all the characters but for a large cast I think they were all fleshed out pretty well.

The world building is the best element for me. I was super into the dystopia and how it seemed quite possible. There's no major disaster, just growing issues overtime while everyone tries to act like everythings fine. Lauren's religion is also a great part of the book. It's a perspective on God I haven't ever seen before, and a good religious view for the apocolypse lol.

If you've read the book I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, but a part that REALLY took me out of the book was Laurens romance. I think it really goes against some of the other themes of the novel. Other characters have backstories that show how relationships like that are predatory and traumatizing, but when Lauren does it everything okay? I don't get it :(

I'll probably eventually read the sequel just to know what happens and enter the world again, but I'll have to recover from all the dystopia stuff. If you like dystopia though this will be up your alley :)

Link: Here

Summary:
"A collection of suicide notes accompanied by a brief description of who the individual was, what their note meant, and the circumstances which led up to their suicide"

Thoughts:
Very depressing, as you would expect. I was curious about this topic after seeing Virginia Wolfe's famous suicide note. But the commentary on the notes and the categorization really makes the whole thing feel hacky. Like, the book begins by telling you this is pornographic and you're a pervert or voyeur for reading it. YOU WROTE THE BOOK. and I think the book would feel much less like voyeuristically enjoying someone elses suffering if the commentary didn't read like freakshow advertisements.

There is totally a respectful way to present something like this, they just didn't do it. The notes themselves were heartbreaking as you'd think. If you're interested in the topic of suicide notes and what people usually put in them/blame their suicide on, this is a decent compilation. Just ignore all the commentary.

Summary:
"Emerging from the thought-provoking discussions and correspondence Simone Weil had with the Reverend Father Perrin, this classic collection of essays contains the renowned philosopher and social activist's most profound meditations on the relationship of human life to the realm of the transcendent. An enduring masterwork and "one of the most neglected resources of our century" (Adrienne Rich), Waiting for God will continue to influence spiritual and political thought for centuries to come."

Thoughts:
I was craving some difficult to read nonfiction and this was that. Simone Weil has some really interesting ideas, though I'm not sure I grasp them all. I think her thesis is basically the title. That longing for god is god or the closest we can hope to get to god. That we should be happy empting ourselves out and focusing all our attention on the desire for god, making ourselves an empty vessel for him, and being satisfied with that emptiness if god never comes.

Her obediance and devotion to god was certaintly moving. It has to feel great to be that devoted to anything.

A lot of what she talks about is stuff that doesn't make sense logically, but to me makes sense experiencially. She talks about affliction as the point of a nail being hammered into you, and that that pain brings you closer to god. Logically that doesn't make much sense, but experiencially I think that is true.

She also just says interesting stuff. I think she says god doesn't interfere with the world because god diminshed a part of himself to create the world, and that we are so diminished that his perfect-ness can't interact with us.

I don't agree but like what a concept. Overall very interesting, would reccomend if you want some ideas about religion I haven't seen elsewhere.

Summary:
"Cat's Eye is the story of Elaine Risley, a controversial painter who returns to Toronto, the city of her youth, for a retrospective of her art. Engulfed by vivid images of the past, she reminisces about a trio of girls who initiated her into the fierce politics of childhood and its secret world of friendship, longing, and betrayal. Elaine must come to terms with her own identity as a daughter, a lover, and artist, and woman—but above all she must seek release from her haunting memories. Disturbing, hilarious, and compassionate, Cat's Eye is a breathtaking novel of a woman grappling with the tangled knots of her life."

Thoughts:
VERY GOOD! I think bullying usually isn't portrayed well in stories because they make it too violent and not emotional enough. This story gets what bullying is. If you're a girl whose been terrorized by girls, especially those who were your friends, you'll get this book.

I like the start of this book more than the later half, but the end is still good. The portrayal of forties culture and how that has affected the main characters art is great too. I just like to hear about different time periods.

I really liked this part,“This is what I miss, Cordelia: not something that’s gone, but something that will never happen. Two old women giggling over their tea.” Like isn't that agonizing.

Summary:
"A book that asks: Is there life after the internet?

As this urgent, genre-defying book opens, a woman who has recently been elevated to prominence for her social media posts travels around the world to meet her adoring fans. She is overwhelmed by navigating the new language and etiquette of what she terms "the portal," where she grapples with an unshakable conviction that a vast chorus of voices is now dictating her thoughts. When existential threats—from climate change and economic precariousness to the rise of an unnamed dictator and an epidemic of loneliness—begin to loom, she posts her way deeper into the portal's void. An avalanche of images, details, and references accumulate to form a landscape that is post-sense, post-irony, post-everything. "Are we in hell?" the people of the portal ask themselves. "Are we all just going to keep doing this until we die?"

Suddenly, two texts from her mother pierce the fray: "Something has gone wrong," and "How soon can you get here?" As real life and its stakes collide with the increasingly absurd antics of the portal, the woman confronts a world that seems to contain both an abundance of proof that there is goodness, empathy, and justice in the universe, and a deluge of evidence to the contrary.

Fragmentary and omniscient, incisive and sincere, No One Is Talking About This is at once a love letter to the endless scroll and a profound, modern meditation on love, language, and human connection from a singular voice in American literature."

Thoughts:
Really good. Extremely easy to read, extremely online. If you've gotten that "everyone is watching me" feeling from using the internet, then I think you'll get this book.

The second part is much better than the first, so don't give up too quickly. The love these characters have for the baby is beautiful.

I really liked how they said "She only knows being herself" or something similar. Got me thinking about different ways life is experienced and stuff, which is more than I thought I'd get out of a book about an influencer lol.

Summary:
In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind . . .

A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?

Thoughts:
I liked this one. The reason it's only getting 3 stars is because I was expecting a murder mystery, and then that wasn't really what the story was about. If you want a character study/introspection on an interesting old woman than this is that book! and I liked it for that.

The main character was deeply endearing to me. Her voice really nailed the eccentric old lady thing. The relationships between the towns folk and her were my favorite parts of the book. The part in the middle when the entomologist is visiting is my favorite. Very solid book overall, just needs a less deceptive description I guess.

Summary:
What if you could enter the mind of the person you love the most?

Enka meets Mathilde in art school and is instantly drawn to her. Mathilde makes art that feels truly original, and Enka—trying hard to prove herself in this fiercely competitive world—pours everything into their friendship. But when Mathilde’s fame and success cause her to begin drifting away, Enka becomes desperate to keep her close.

Enter SCAFFOLD. Purported to enhance empathy, this cutting-edge technology could allow Enka to inhabit Mathilde’s mind and access her memories, artistic inspirations, and deep-seated trauma. Undergoing this procedure would link Enka and Mathilde forever. But at what cost?

Blisteringly smart, thought-provoking, and shocking, Immaculate Conception offers us a portrait of close friendship—achingly tender and twisted—that captures the tenuous line between love and possession that will haunt you long after you turn the final page.

Thoughts:
This book is just every sci-fi concept ever + toxic girl friendship + weird fine art drama. And I was sat.

It's incredibly entertaining, but maybe not the most well written. There's so much exposition, not even folded in nicely, and then the world building that was just established gets forgotten in a chapter. This book has AI commentary, genetic engineering, cloning, mind-reading stuff, YA dystopia style divided cities, women having babies without men, and so much other concepts that could all be their own book. I feel that most of these topics weren't explored to their fullest.

That's the same issue I have with the toxic girl friendship. It's what the book is about, but I feel like they could've explored it more or had the two women interact more.

Despite all this I was so entertained by this book. It's easy to read and I was constantly wondering what would happen next cause something unheard of was happening every page. I would recomend it just for that.

Summary:
Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out ― with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes ― to breed their own exhibit of human oddities.

There's Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family's most precious ― and dangerous ― asset.

As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. Family values will never be the same.

Thoughts:
Best book ever ACTUALLY. I read this book for such long chunks of time I gave myself headache level eyestrain, and then kept reading.

The summary is just the tip of the iceberg of stuff that actually happens in this book. I won't say anything else because I think you need to be shocked, but it's like 5 stories in one. And all of those stories are told to their fullest. It's so immersive I felt like the world of the Binewski's was real, and my actual life was just something distracting me from them.

The dark places this book goes to are disturbing but also creative!!! and the shock of them feels earned by the messed up world the author's created. PLEASE READ THIS BOOK. I can't recommend it enough.

Summary:In 1945 an Egyptian peasant unearthed what proved to be the Gnostic Gospels, thirteen papyrus volumes that expounded a radically different view of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ from that of the New Testament. In this spellbinding book, renowned religious scholar Elaine Pagels elucidates the mysteries and meanings of these sacred texts both in the world of the first Christians and in the context of Christianity today.

With insight and passion, Pagels explores a remarkable range of recently discovered gospels, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, to show how a variety of “Christianities” emerged at a time of extraordinary spiritual upheaval. Some Christians questioned the need for clergy and church doctrine, and taught that the divine could be discovered through spiritual search. Many others, like Buddhists and Hindus, sought enlightenment — and access to God — within. Such explorations raised questions: Was the resurrection to be understood symbolically and not literally? Was God to be envisioned only in masculine form, or feminine as well? Was martyrdom a necessary — or worthy — expression of faith? These early Christians dared to ask questions that orthodox Christians later suppressed — and their explorations led to profoundly different visions of Jesus and his message.

Thoughts:
Kinda think I got the wrong cover for this but I'm keeping it. Great book if you're obssessed with religion and early Christian history. Anyone else will be bored. It's very academic in writing basically.

I wanted to learn more about Gnosticism cause I heard that they believed the God of the old testament was an evil demon who had made the world and that real God was Jesus who had come to free everyone. Like a worldview involving existence itself being made by an evil demon how novel how bleak. There is some info on that, but apparently it was a niche view even at the time.

Learning about all the weird sects of thought springing up at the time was great though. The idea that Christian texts where just basic knowledge, and that personal revelation is more impactful cause it's new is so cool. Never seen that before. Seeing what the early Jesus movement was up to and what could've been is just soooooo interesting to me.