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Rated De geschiedenis van mijn seksualiteit 6/10
Rated What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky 8/10
Rated The Best American Short Stories 2016 6/10
Rated The Bible: A Very Short Introduction 2/10
Very poor compared to the standard of the other VSI's I have read so far. The other books in the series did a great job in providing a very concise overview of a vast subject. Written by experts yet quite accessible to those unfamiliar with the topic at hand.<br/><br/>John Riches starts rather conventional, outlining the Bible's origins and canonization but one third in slips into a sloppy kind of 'social life of the Bible'. From there on he seems to be cherrypicking from his favourite parts of his own lectures, seemingly unaware he is not writing for theology students. It all lacks both focus and overview. What should have been examples ('Jewish and Christian readings of the Binding of Isaac', 'Galatians through history') are promoted to entire chapters. <br/><br/>His main point: people have read the texts of the Bible in very different ways. His main concern: how to keep people reading the Bible.<br/><br/>Awful read. To be avoided if you don't know much but are curious about the famed book. This doesn't teach you anything you couldn't have figured out yourself ('people have read the texts of the Bible in very different ways').
Rated Homegoing 8/10
This is an ambitious book. Homegoing follows the descendants of two (half)sisters born in present-day Ghana in the 18th century. Following the two family lines, both tangled up in the history of slavery, Gyasi maps the experience of being black on both sides of the Atlantic. She manages to wrap a lot of history and a lot of pain in this novel. Downside of her broad scope and multigenerational approach is that her characters lack some depth, sometimes merely cardboard pawns pushed through the historical scheme in which their lives are embedded. Yet, to fit all this into just 300 captivating pages is quite an achievement.