Well, it's been a while! I've been in a major book-reading slump, having been sucked into the vortex that is Dracula Daily and all its related fanfiction (so I'm still reading a lot— just not books). But this past week I finally finished not one but two books, plus bladed through a manga, so I finally have some reviews to report. Without further ado…
The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life by Simran Jeet Singh
This book is delightful and heartrending, humorous and wise, hard-hitting and gentle, weaving together stories from the author's life and Sikh history with the basic tenets of the Sikh religion. Singh is an engaging storyteller, calling us back again and again to the humanity and divinity within us all, the importance of living in concordance with our values, and the ways that Sikh wisdom helps us do just that. The topics range from racism and perfectionism to parenting and soccer, the notion of home, the idea of safety, and the challenges of community.
Reading this as a Christian was important to me, to try to understand what it's like to live as a religious minority and to see both the connections and painful contradictions of the two paths of faith. The chapter that struck me the most was his analysis of how the golden rule ("Do unto others as you would have them do to you") has been used to justify colonialism, coercion, and cultural and bodily genocide, often against the people of his own religion. The book is likely to challenge anyone in some way, but Singh's self-deprecating humor and refreshing honesty are there to guide you through the difficult emotions.
American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal by Kerri Kelly
This intriguing book explores the concept of wellness, asking readers to step beyond the individualistic definitions and to consider how society and community can create wellness as a whole. It scathingly critiques both the medical-industrial complex and the wellness-industrial complex (supplements, yoga, crystals, etc.), and also manages to tackle white supremacy, colonialism, environmental issues, perfectionism, the American Dream of self-sufficiency, and more. If this sounds like a lot to cover in a single book, you're right, and I found myself wishing that the author would stop skirting over the summaries of everything and just choose one or two topics to deep-dive into. There was lots of theory and very little actionable material in it— which was perhaps the point, but frustrated me nevertheless.
Despite the sometimes-shallowness of the book, it was still well worth the read, and especially might serve well as a jumping-off point for studying other subjects. The chapter about perfectionism (and how it relates to both wellness and the American Dream) was my favorite, with lots of beautiful insight. So if you feel like reading a fairly dense but also insightful book, this would be one to check out.
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| Avengers, assemble! |
Manga Classics: Dracula by Bram Stoker, adapted by Stacy King and Virginia Nitouhei
After finishing Dracula as told through Dracula Daily (I'll be leaving a looong review of that later), I was dying to experience some sort of adaptation. Since every movie sounds like an absolutely horrible adaptation (I think if I watched the 1992 one I would punch my TV), I turned to this manga, and was not disappointed. It's a faithful translation of this somewhat episodic story, using the book's narrative to frame the illustrations. The character design is great (except for Dr. Seward— I almost can't forgive them for making him ugly), and a bit more approachable than reading a 160,000-word book!
The violence is a bit graphic at times (especially when staking vampires is concerned), so those sensitive to blood might want to sit it out. Like all adaptations it has its downsides— on a broad level I was upset that they toned down Jonathan Harker's character arc in the end, making him less feral and more milquetoast, and from a pure indulgent perspective I really wanted to see manga-Harker hitting Dracula in the face with a shovel (as he does in the book). But all in all, it was a delightful read and does a great job of capturing the themes of the book— horror and love, friendship and isolation, secrets and insight, vampires and cowboys (well, just the one cowboy). Highly recommended!
Previously on What I've Been Reading:
All What I've Been Reading posts
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