Classics

Books Read in May 2025

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Sorry this is so late! I have been studying hard for the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® exam, which I am sitting for in July, so other efforts have fallen by the wayside. However, here are two books I finished in May:

Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens

Published 1865

I have been making my meandering way through the works of Dickens over the past few years, and I found a copy of this one at our local library book sale (which is amazing and not to be missed!) last year. This was one of Dickens’ last novels, and he does seem to start with a bit more confidence than some of his earlier works. 

As with some other Dickens novels, the central story involves money: a will and a large inheritance (I haven’t read Bleak House yet, but look forward to it!). The only son of the late Mr. Harmon is set to inherit a large fortune if he returns to England and marries the girl his father chose for him, Bella Wilfur. Miss Wilfur captured the old gentleman’s attention as a child, and he wanted his son to marry her when they both grew up (this is bananas, but was it maybe less bananas in the 19th century? Unclear). 

The son, John Harmon, was abroad and is apparently murdered immediately upon returning to England, alas. So instead, the Boffins, faithful servants of old Mr. Harmon inherit the goods. 

Separately, we also follow the story of Lizzie Hexam, whose father pulled Harmon’s body out of the Thames, and we also check in on some Members of Society who are around I presume to be a contrast to the lower class characters. 

Class and money are two defining themes of the novel, with various characters exemplifying different attitudes toward both. Their moral character is not defined by their rising or falling in status or class, which is interesting, though we do have the satisfaction of seeing some bad characters come to bad ends. 

As with all Dickens novels, you have to settle in and go at his pace. You can’t rush forward, and you have to bear with all the side-plots and cast of many characters who appear and weave in and out of the story. Eventually most of the threads come together in some way, but it is sometimes a long road to get there. 

While there were sub-plots and characters I enjoyed, this is not going on my list as a “top shelf” Dickens. It wasn’t bad, but I was bored in the sections where the fancy society people came together and tried to all trick each other into thinking they were richer than they were, and I also did not care for the way the main male character “tested the character” of the main female character. Lying to a woman you profess to love to see if she will pass your test and demanding she be loyal to you no matter what is not great. Either you think she has good moral character or you don’t. Do not lie to her and get other people to also lie to her to trick her into being “good.” 

All in all, I would say this is a Dickens novel you could skip unless you’re really a completionist. There are, as always, entertaining side characters, and I thought the various characters and their attitudes toward money (or the lack thereof) were helpful in some ways, but Dickens explored those themes in other books to greater success I think. 

Clouds of Witness, by Dorothy Sayers

Published 1926

I am an unabashed Dorothy Sayers fan. This is the second book in her Lord Peter Wimsey detective series. In it, Lord Peter’s brother, Gerald, is on trial for murdering his sister’s fiancé, and Lord Peter (with his faithful valet, Bunter, and police friend, Inspector Parker) must unravel the mystery. 

As usual in a good mystery, witnesses are lying about their movements the night of the murder, there are various clues to be followed up, and in this case there is also a vivid scene of blundering about near a bog in the foggy moors. 

The mystery is good, the characters are entertaining, and I appreciate the literary quotations and references. 

Lord Peter is an interesting sleuth because while he is methodical in following clues, personable in questioning witnesses, and can come across as the idiotic upper class rich gentleman to lull suspects into a false sense of security, we also see glimpses of his sensitive emotions and hints of the ways that a generation of men who went off to WWI did not escape unscathed. This blend humanizes him. Bunter’s obvious faithfulness to his master, without being slavish, is also a point in his favor. 

This was perfect to read in the evenings to wind down while I am studying for the CFP® exam—I can’t handle putting other facts in my brain with nonfiction right now (my brain is full of facts about financial planning!), but I didn’t want something completely mindless, so a good story well told was exactly what I needed.

Books Read in April 2025

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The Sabbath, by Abraham Joshua Heschel 

Published 1951

This is a book I’ve heard referenced several times, often by people who seem pretty smart/ able to handle academic treatises well, so I assumed this would be a 500 page tome that I would crawl halfway through and hope to glean some wisdom from the pages I could handle. 

I bought the book and was surprised to see that it is only 100 pages! But reports of the wisdom and poetry of this slim volume on the Sabbath were not over-hyped. 

While I am not Jewish and some of Heschel’s interactions with other rabbis and a chapter that is an extended parable went above my head, his meditations on the meaning of the Sabbath day were both beautiful and profound. 

“The Sabbath…is not for recovering one’s lost strength and becoming fit for the coming labor. The Sabbath is a day for the sake of life. Man is not a beast of burden, and the Sabbath is not for the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of his work.

“The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of the Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living.”

I grew up and am in a Christian tradition that has a somewhat uneasy relationship with the Sabbath: as Christians, our holy day is Sunday, not Saturday, and while the other 9 of the 10 Commandments are treated as rules one should follow, remembering the sabbath day to keep it holy is treated more as a suggestion. There are all kinds of complicated reasons, historical and practical and cultural, and I don’t pretend to be any kind of expert. But we could learn a lot from Heschel and his meditations on the holiness of time. 

He says “[The Bible’s] premise [is] that time has a meaning for life which is at least equal to that of space…. Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time. Unlike the space-minded man to whom time is unvaried, iterative, homogenous, to whom all hours are like, qualitiless, empty shells, the Bible senses the diversified character of time.” 

This book is beautiful and thought-provoking, and there are portions that I didn’t understand at all, especially parts where he is clearly in conversation with other rabbis and I’m missing a lot of context. But his insistence that the Sabbath is supposed to be a gift and an invitation into holy time is really lovely and something for me to think about. 

Part of what is difficult is that for observant Jews, Sabbath is an agreed-upon communal different (holy) time. Protestant Christians do not have a similar agreed upon view of Sundays, and it is difficult to Sabbath alone. Not impossible, perhaps, but certainly not the same. 

There is more to say, but I am sure I will come back to this book to try to absorb more of its wisdom. 

Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Published 2025

Whew, this book was a ride! This was a tell-all memoir about one of the biggest tech companies in the United States, and I’m sure Facebook/Meta is trying desperately to sue the author for all she’s worth because this was not a flattering portrait. 

Sarah Wynn-Williams worked at Facebook in their global policy department, a job that she basically invented because she saw that as it became a global company Facebook could shape global discourse and would need a team to think about how to interact with other countries, not just the United States. 

I already had a fairly low opinion of Facebook and its founders and leaders, and Wynn-Williams does not hold back in her critiques via stories of how clueless and careless they are. Tech start-up culture also sounds terrible and all-consuming. To “succeed” in that world, you sacrifice everything: your time, relationships, other interests, to work all hours and be available at any time. This is not completely unusual, especially for American tech companies.

The work culture was interesting when compared with my last read: The Sabbath! 

There were so many stories about interactions Wynn-Williams had with leadership where she advocated from a public policy background trying to encourage the leaders of Facebook that they could do so much good in the world connecting people, and the leaders just…didn’t care. They didn’t get it or understand what they might do as creators of something with moral implications. They were not curious about other countries, or other ways of life.

They saw their creation as a tech product and payday. Unending growth and unending wealth were the goals, and any other expectations were secondary. Sacrificing so much of oneself to unfettered growth and money-making does not leave a lot of room for personal growth, reflection, or thoughtfulness. Commitment to profits alone means moral equivocations, if indeed morals matter at all. 

Working in such an environment meant that Wynn-Williams herself made moral choices that I disagree with, and while she definitely stayed much longer at the company than she should have, she seems to still have a somewhat working moral compass. Enough to write a book pointing out that we have all opted into social media platforms created by people who do not care about us, especially if we are not wealthy or powerful enough to offer them something they want. People are expendable to them, dollar signs to exploit. 

How can social media be a public good when the creators do not care about public good in any way? How can a platform really work to connect people when its creators do not care about other people?

There were definitely some shocking stories, and I am even more convinced that there are levels of fame and wealth that are extremely corrosive to the soul. We all think we want to be rich, and certainly there is a level of wealth that will solve problems and create comfort, but beyond that, it shackles the wealthy, blunts creativity, creates moral wasting. 

Reading this book was like watching a train wreck I couldn’t look away from. Fascinating, maddening, and worrying when I think about all the ways that social media is tearing us apart and magnifying the dysfunction in our relationships with one another. 

I listened to the audio version of this book, which is read by the author in her delightful New Zealand accent, so I recommend that if you enjoy audiobooks.

Books Read in February 2025

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I’ve been putting off publishing this because I started painting the upstairs walls (and ceilings and doors and trim) and did not have an office space to paint my little book covers. However, it is now mid-April, and really it’s best to just move forward and return to cute little book covers later. Sorry, February! But here is what I read:

The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien’s story of an epic quest to rid Middle Earth of an evil via a magic ring continues in The Two Towers. 

The fellowship of nine companions who set out to destroy the ring of power have been scattered, and the first half of the book follows most of our heroes as they cover new ground and the second half follows the other two as they continue the journey to the land of Mordor and the volcano where the ring can be destroyed. 

The second installment of a series often expands the world, introduces new characters, and splits up the party to follow various side quests.

Tolkien split his story into 6 sub-books, and I had forgotten that the entirety of “book three” (the first half of The Two Towers) is about the rest of the fellowship and the entirety of “book four” is about Frodo and Sam. I wish Tolkien had organized the book to interweave the two stories a bit more, as there’s a lot of excitement (and a battle!) in the first half, and then the action nearly grinds to a halt as we follow the two hobbits’ slow journey in the second half. One almost forgets all the activity as the journey to Mordor creeps onward. 

I do think the slowness of the journey to Mordor highlights its difficulty; the brutal terrain, the enemies all around, and the burden of the ring growing. It is effective in communicating that doing what is right is often difficult, tedious, and part of Frodo’s heroism is continuing even when he thinks the chance of success grows smaller every day. 

While I would have suggested interweaving the stories a bit more so we didn’t forget about one half of the adventure while following the other, Tolkien is still a good storyteller and the world he created becomes more incredible as the view of it expands. I love meeting new characters (one of whom is female—hooray). 

As with The Fellowship of the Ring, I listened to Andy Serkis’s narration of the audiobook, and I have no idea how he kept all the different character voices straight, but his commitment to the book was impressive and entertaining. 

System Collapse, by Martha Wells

Murderbot returns for more adventures! 

It is difficult to write reviews for subsequent books in a series due to spoilers for previous books, and also just the difficulty in dropping someone in when an adventure is seven books deep. 

The Murderbot Diaries series follows a cyborg Security Unit that has hacked its governor module (which compelled it to follow orders) and has gone rogue. The SecUnit has christened itself “Murderbot” and is trying to figure itself out over the course of the series. 

This installment picks up immediately following the last adventure, so it is helpful to refresh one’s memory about recent events via a Wikipedia entry of plot summaries if one has forgotten exactly what happened last. 

Murderbot is snarky, and swings between being extremely concerned about the safety of its adopted humans and wanting to be left online to watch tv. Relatable. In each adventure Murderbot is also learning more about itself and also reluctantly forming relationships with some kind humans and another snarky bot, ART (who is a transport ship—don’t think too hard about how that works). 

There’s a lot of plot and action, and most of the books are novellas, but the threads of self-discovery and growth that run throughout are really charming. I enjoy plot-heavy books, so I enjoy the action in these, but I also want characters to learn and grow over time, and Murderbot does grow through its experiences and is changed by interactions with others. Wanting to just sit around and watch tv but instead going out and forming relationships, caring for others in the best way it knows how (calculating the probability of everything falling apart and its humans reaching untimely ends unless Murderbot intervenes) is actually quite lovely. 

While there is one full-length novel in the series, I really think these stories work better as novellas, and was pleased to see this return to form. 

The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien’s epic fantasy trilogy comes to a conclusion at last! 

Once again, the first part of the book is devoted to Aragorn & co. and the second part follows Frodo and Sam on the final stage of their journey through Mordor to rid the world of Sauron’s evil ring which holds his power and keeps his malice alive.

Eventually the two stories converge, but the two journeys are mostly separate once again. 

Tolkien’s descriptions of the natural world are beautiful (or depressing, when he describes what evil characters do to nature when they have power over it; you know a character is evil if he cuts down trees for no reason). The descriptions at the end of rebuilding, with planting trees, an abundant harvest and the births of many children as signs of renewal and restoration, peace and plenty, are so lovely. 

Some people have complained that the denouement goes on too long, but I love that the members of the fellowship take their time disbanding after their time together, and I enjoyed the chapter The Scouring of the Shire about how evil can spread even to places we once thought “safe.” Also, it’s one final adventure for our hobbits on their own, and it shows how much they have learned and grown from their adventures in the wider world. 

The ending is bittersweet and hopeful—a reminder that journeys and wars leave scars, but also that there is healing and leaving a place better than you found it is a worthy goal, whether or not you personally get to enjoy the peace and prosperity. 

It has been such a delight revisiting Middle Earth! There are so many great characters, a beautiful world, and resonant themes that it is no wonder this trilogy is a fantasy classic and has inspired so many people to follow in Tolkien’s footsteps.

“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” 

2024 Reading Year In Review

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Welcome to 2025. 2024 was a difficult year for me personally. My work-life was challenging, I was (and still am) studying for the Certified Financial Planner certification, and there were some other difficult things going on that I’m not going to get into here. 

My reading-for-pleasure life was pretty minimal last year as a result. I did read some good books, and in the fall I read a lot of Agatha Christie, which was lovely and about all I could handle between studying, working, and trying to occasionally hang out with people. 

I did read a lot of words last year, but most of them were for class. Outside of class, I read 23 books last year. 

Top 3 books from 2024: 

“The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory,” by Tim Alberta. A fascinating look at where and how white evangelicals got to the place they are politically. Alberta is a Christian and a journalist, so he has an interesting perspective. He is pretty clear that he thinks many Christians have exchanged their values for political power. This is nothing new (“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’” -Matthew 4:8-9), it’s just the most recent iteration of this temptation. 

“Ghosted,” by Nancy French. A memoir of someone who has survived a tough life so far, and someone who got on the “wrong side” of right-wing American politics and has seen how vicious it can be. Clearly, this has been a reading theme over the past few years. French is a good writer and great story-teller, and I couldn’t put this down. 

“Middlemarch,” by George Eliot. This book deserves its place in the canon of great works of literature in the English language. It is about life in 19th century England in a small town, full of normal people living their normal lives, but also giving such interior descriptions that you recognize the hopes, fears, actions, inactions of the characters. At its core it looks at three relationships, and peels back layers to see the ways people misunderstand one another and how a good marriage can help you succeed as a human (which may or may not impact you financially, but certainly impacts you morally) and a bad marriage can ruin your life. 

This year, I am still studying, but I’m hoping that I will pass the exam in July and then be free from the burden of study for a while. That should give me some more space to read other things! 

50 Classics in 5 Years Recap and Next Challenge

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Greetings, internet! The date of my last entry tells me I have neglected this space for two years. It feels like a garden I have not tended where the grass and clover has overtaken the flower beds, and the whole thing looks a little sad and shabby. So it’s time to clear out some of the weeds, till the soil, and begin again.

In the summer of 2018 I discovered The Classics Club community, which encourages members (membership is quite loose) to read more classics by imposing the structure–a challenge–of reading 50 classics in 5 years. I wanted to include more classics in my reading life, and thought this sounded like a great idea. In August of 2018, I set out to read many classics (to accomplish this in 5 years requires completing 0.833% of a book every month, so a pretty steady pace).

All was going well. And then it was 2020 and all was not going well.

I think it is worthwhile to set goals and read classics. Having a challenge and a list is helpful, especially when a book is finished and it is time to pick up another one. Having a list narrows the choices, which I appreciate.

In reflecting back over my previous challenge, I identified a few things that I might change:

First, I tried to “one up” myself and increase the difficulty by choosing too many long books, and by choosing several sets of multiple books and counting them as one. I modified my list over time and took out some of these books (for example, Kristin Lavransdatter is actually a trilogy. Just because I own an omnibus edition does not mean I have to count it as one!). I am not being graded, nor will I get extra credit for doing more. There’s no need to make this challenge more difficult than it is.

Second, I started this challenge in 2018 and had no idea what the next few years would bring. I did not have the same attention span in 2020 and the couple years after that or the mental space for more challenging reading during the pandemic years.

My first plan to mitigate this was to give myself an extension to 2024, but I was already far behind and 2023 has been difficult for my reading life.

Instead, it is time to close the book on the first 50 Classics Challenge (pun absolutely intended), and start afresh. I hope that the next five years will be a bit better for my reading life, though who knows what lies in store.

This time, I want to be a little kinder to myself and choose some shorter books alongside the classic doorstop novels. I will, of course, choose some unread books from my previous challenge, but include some new titles and not keep everything from my last effort. I will also count books in a series or trilogy as one book each, instead of counting three books as one, etc.

I’m going to go from October 2023 to October 2028, instead of choosing the calendar year, because there are enough things that follow the calendar year, and I want to start while I’m excited for a new project and have a little momentum to start me out on this next adventure.

My list for Round 2 of the challenge is here: https://austinfey.com/50-classics-2/

Of course, I will not be reading only classics. Newer books will make their way onto my list, and I’ll have to decide if I want to review books read in a month or review books as I read them. We shall see. Books read for this challenge will get their own review posts, as usual.

I hope that your reading life is going well and I look forward to rehabilitating my own.

Image from Sergiu Valenas via Unsplash.