Sex Changes

Sex Changes: A Memoir of Marriage, Gender, and Moving On by Christine Benvenuto, 294 pages

One night, shortly after making love, Christine Benvenuto's husband of over twenty years, the father of her three children, confessed to her that he wasn't the man she thought he was.  In fact, he wasn't a man at all.  He was, and always had been, a woman trapped in a man's body, and he was done pretending.  Over the course of the next few years, she watched helplessly as he sacrificed his relationships with her and their children on the altar of a jealous god called Who I Really Am.

Sex Changes is, above all, an opportunity for Benvenuto to tell her side of the story, what her husband's choices cost her and their children, a side of the story which it is not socially acceptable to tell - or, for that matter, to hear.

A Book Forged in Hell

A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza's Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age by Steven Nadler, 279 pages


Summary courtesy of Goodreads: "When it appeared in 1670, Baruch Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise was denounced as the most dangerous book ever published--"godless," "full of abominations," "a book forged in hell . . . by the devil himself." Religious and secular authorities saw it as a threat to faith, social and political harmony, and everyday morality, and its author was almost universally regarded as a religious subversive and political radical who sought to spread atheism throughout Europe. Yet Spinoza's book has contributed as much as the Declaration of Independence or Thomas Paine's Common Sense to modern liberal, secular, and democratic thinking. In A Book Forged in Hell, Steven Nadler tells the fascinating story of this extraordinary book: its radical claims and their background in the philosophical, religious, and political tensions of the Dutch Golden Age, as well as the vitriolic reaction these ideas inspired.

It is not hard to see why Spinoza's Treatise was so important or so controversial, or why the uproar it caused is one of the most significant events in European intellectual history. In the book, Spinoza became the first to argue that the Bible is not literally the word of God but rather a work of human literature; that true religion has nothing to do with theology, liturgical ceremonies, or sectarian dogma; and that religious authorities should have no role in governing a modern state. He also denied the reality of miracles and divine providence, reinterpreted the nature of prophecy, and made an eloquent plea for toleration and democracy.

A vivid story of incendiary ideas and vicious backlash, A Book Forged in Hell will interest anyone who is curious about the origin of some of our most cherished modern beliefs."

Nadler sheds light on Spinoza. He isn't a philosopher that is discussed a lot by philosophers and his ideas aren't well known. He also touches on Spinoza's ethics. Spinoza was Jewish but gave up Judaism. Despite what some believe he didn't become atheist or convert to Christianity. He had a different conception of God and religion. I appreciated the context that Nadler provided for Spinoza's book and philosophy. I would recommend this book to people that like reading history, religion or philosophy.

Philosophers Without Gods

Philosophers Without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life edited by Louise M. Antony, 315 pages


This collection of essays is divided into two parts. The first part is Journeys and the second part is Reflections. The essays are relatively short as they are about 10-20 pages.

The essays in Journeys are autobiographical. They describe how the essay writer grew up with religion and how he or she became an atheist. It includes perspectives from Jewish people and Christian people. It was noteworthy that a lot of the stories were similar. I almost thought I had just read some of them. It also stood out to me that a lot of the people were heavily religious before they became atheist.

The essays in Reflections cover a range of ideas related to atheism. One considers whether there can be transcendence without God. A couple consider how we can have ethics and morality without God. Others of them tackle belief and the nature of God. They cover some of the same ground but have different perspectives and opinions on the same questions.

I would recommend this to those interested in atheism or philosophy.

The Wartime Sisters

The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman  304 pages

A friend passed her Advanced Reader’s Copy to me, saying that she thought it would be something I would like….and she was right.  I loved the cover, and the blurb at the top of the back cover cemented that I wanted to read this: “In the vein of “The Nightingale” and “The Lilac Girls”….I was hooked.

Ruth and Millie are sisters, three years apart. As they developed, it became increasingly evident that they could not be more different than if they didn’t share both parents. Ruth was the plain, introverted one; Millie was a beauty from her first breath, a risk-taker. Longing for an affectionate bond between them, they had nothing in common. Ruth marries a safe, gentle man…a scientist. Millie falls for a bad boy, gets pregnant, and that’s the good part of her life. Even after their parents are killed in a car accident, the two sisters cannot seem to develop an affection for each other.

As America enters World War II, Ruth’s husband joins the Army, but instead of being sent to fight, her scientific knowledge gets him transferred to the Springfield (Massachusetts, I had to presume) Armory. Millie stays behind in Brooklyn, where the girls were raised.

Ruth’s life on the base is bucolic and well-order; Millie’s husband becomes increasingly violent. It doesn’t upset her when Lenny joins the Army, but soon she is a widow with a small child. When the two sisters finally reunite, Millie and her son come to live with Ruth and her family. While Ruth plays Officer’s Wife, Millie gets a job in one of the Armory’s factories. Then a truth from the past begins to haunt the sisters, forcing them to lean on each other.

This story has the dueling timelines that I like, but they seem off.  Here’s one of many examples: The narrative speaks of Ruth’s twin daughters, but readers aren’t even aware that Ruth has married.  In the next chapter, the reader gets the backstory. The past and present don’t seem to line up as they should. That’s the reason, “The Wartime Sisters” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Philosophy in the Islamic World

Philosophy in the Islamic World: A Very Short Introduction by Peter Adamson, 133 pages

Adamson notes in his introduction that the reason for his title is that Christian, Jewish and Islamic thinker contributed to philosophy in the Islamic world which has at times included Spain.

Per the name of the book, this book isn't very deep and while it is supposed to cover up to current time it is mostly focused on ancient times. Islamic philosophy began around the 8th century AD and was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy and science.

Adamson starts by talking about the most important period. He gives an overview of significant philosophers along with the year they died and important ideas. Further chapters focus on specific subjects that were debated.

It is notable that Islamic philosophy, in contrast with Latin Christendom, doesn't distinguish between theology and philosophy. Some Islamic philosophers saw limits to reason while others didn't.

Some Islamic philosophers believed that God created the world and then ceded control while others think that God still controls the world and sometimes chooses to change it. As with some Christian philosophers, some Islamic philosophers attempted to use logic to prove there is a God (a creator).

Other notable subjects Islamic philosophers focused on include eternity, knowledge, ethics and politics.

Even though this book isn't long there is a lot crammed into the pages. I felt it was a good overview and would like to read about some of the subjects further at some point in the future.

Public Enemies

Public Enemies: Dueling Writers Take on Each Other and the World by Bernard-Henry Levy and Michel Houellebecq, translated by Miriam Frendo and Frank Wynne, 309 pages

This book is the product of a half-year correspondence between two of France's most talked-about contemporary writers.  One is Bernard-Henry Levy, the politically engaged Jewish public intellectual and journalist, author of Barbarism with a Human Face and Left in Dark Times.  The other is Michel Houellebecq, the self-described "absolute atheist" (disdaining both religious and political faiths), author of The Elementary Particles and Submission.  The former travels all over the world chronicling injustice, the latter lives as a tax exile in the Irish countryside.

In one memorable passage, Houellebecq compares their dialogue to miners working parallel shafts, each hearing the other digging and searching for the breakthroughs that will bring them together.  Levy describes it, in turn, as a correspondence in search of correspondences.  These seem to come, when they come, in two basic forms: the first is the common experience of living as celebrities in a hostile media environment, while the second is the French literary culture they both share.  If the first is the major theme of the book, the second is the most interesting, for an Anglophone reader especially.  Both correspondents write engagingly, if not always candidly, their apparent sympathy with one another (not untainted by a certain amount of narcissism) underlining the irony of the title.

A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman         Audio Book:  6 hours    Hardback Book: 208 pages

I have heard that stand-up comedians bring their pain to the stage and the audience laughs at it because while they can relate to what is being said, it is funny because it isn’t them experiencing it and the comic presents the pain in a comedic story telling fashion as if he or she is viewing the situation from above and relating it even though it is themselves they are speaking of.    David Grossman has certainly captured the feel and delivers the scene for the reader of actually being in a comedy club.    From beginning to end you have such an indelible sense of the horror that was Dovelah Greenstein’s  life, yet, he breaks up the haunting visuals he creates in your head with a zinger joke or critical observation of someone in the audience just to bring up the deep downturn he has taken the reader on.     This is not a happy book but more of a purging of one’s demons.    Well done, well thought out but it will take the reader on a spiraling trip through Dovelah Greenstein’s past almost like watching someone self-destruct before your eyes.   My first thought was ‘he is having a nervous breakdown on stage’ but dear reader it is far more than that.   I won’t divulge what is really happening here but though the book is fiction, the character is fiction and the plot is fiction, David Grossman captures the pain experienced so realistically it is tangible.    A haunting book.    Both an intellectual and emotional ride that I would liken to (Franz) Kafka.