The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Mysterious Benedict Society #1 by Trenton Lee Stewart

Title: The Mysterious Benedict Society
Author: Trenton Lee Stewart
# Pages: 485
Published: 2007
Rating: 4 stars

This is a lively tale of four talented and intelligent children who are recruited to embark on a dangerous mission to save the world. Each child’s individual gifts are needed to succeed, but can they stick together long enough to complete their mission?

I really enjoyed reading this book. It’s nice to pick up a YA book for a fun, quick read. When the plot and characters are as cleverly-written as they are in this book, it doesn’t even feel like you’re reading something meant for a much younger audience. I found myself reading well into the night, desperate to find out what the children would do next. I will definitely read the rest of the series, and I encourage anyone else looking for a delightful adventure series to do the same.

Favorite Quote

Is this what family is like? The feeling that everyone’s connected, that with one piece missing the whole thing’s broken?

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

Title: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Author: Robert M. Pirsig
# Pages: 404
Published: April 1974
Rating: 5 stars

I decided to make this my first read of the year after I had to put it aside a year or so ago. It is one of my brother’s favorites, and we have similar reading tastes, so I figured I had to give it another go.

Pirsig uses a first-person narrator to tell the story of a father and son and their summer motorcycle trip across the Northwestern United States. The father contemplates his relationship with his son while they drive, which leads him to a comparison of motorcycle maintenance and science, religion, and philosophy.

This is a brilliant book, one I will definitely read again. It not only made me want to get a motorcycle and take my own trip; it also made me want to learn more about philosophy and re-evaluate my own ideas about life.

Favorite Quotes:

We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone.

You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it’s going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it’s always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.

The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.

December 2019

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead – 4 of 5 stars

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks – 4 of 5 stars

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore – 4 of 5 stars

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro – 5 of 5 stars

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh – 4 of 5 stars

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – 5 of 5 stars

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood – 5 of 5 stars

It’s Always Something by Gilda Radner – 5 of 5 stars

November 2019

Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple – 4 of 5 stars

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova – 4 of 5 stars

The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace – 3 of 5 stars

The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson – 2 of 5 stars

Perfect Rhythm by Jae – 3 of 5 stars

Not the Marrying Kind by Jae – 3 of 5 stars

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah – 4 of 5 stars