April was an interesting month. I read a lot of non-fiction books and now that I’m compiling them, I see that they were far from light-hearted.
I started April with Elena Ferrante’s The Story of A New Name, the second book in the Napolitan series as I felt enough time had passed since the first book for me. But as the month continued, the relative brightness of Ferrante’s world was quickly eclipsed by the sadness, derangement and the depth of hardships that followed in the books after.
The books that required the most recovery times were Jeffrey Green’s Pluto books (which were read as companions), Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer, and Tara Westover’s Educated. I am only currently reeling in from the realities presented to me in James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk.
After April, my soul is tired. I’ve climbed, with the help of Jeffrey Green, into the dark depths of the underworld and have just made it back up. These adventures have only made my reflections more interesting, I feel.
The reviews
The Story of A New Name, by Elena Ferrante. Excellent and perfect. I don’t even have much to say because all I remember was needing a conscious effort to slow down. I needed to know what would happen but I also didn’t want it to be over too quickly.
Pluto, by Jeff Green. This is a non-fiction book, about the spiritual dimension of Pluto and its significations to soul purpose, by position in the native birth chart. I’d like to think anyone could find enjoy/benefit from this book but that is probably not true. By far one of the most impactful books on astrology I’ve read (for personal reading).
The Structure of the Soul, by Jeff Green. I had many unanswered questions from the book above, that were only addressed in this second book. It really is required reading if you’re going to go anywhere near a more comprehensive understanding of Jeff Green’s theories.
Note: If you’re going to read Jeff Green already, I also really liked Martin Schulz’s “Karmic Astrology Vol. 1: The Moon’s Nodes and Reincarnation” and Donna Cunningham’s “Healing Pluto Problems” for further reading.
Minor Detail, by Adania Shibli. “A meditation on war, violence, and memory” as goodreads says it. A woman is raped and killed by Israeli soldiers in Palestine. At least half a century later, another woman retraces the outlines and footsteps of the past, showing that the past leaves echoes.
Educated, by Tara Westover. Author’s memoir her childhood and later years in school, about her struggles to shed her Zionist, doomsday-prepper life and worldview to understand the world better. This sets off a slow unravelling of realities as she painstakingly earns her own understanding of the world, herself and the truth of her family environment.
If Beale Street Could Talk, by James Baldwin. A young African-American couple, Fonny and Tish, in New York are at the beginning of their adult life when Fonny is falsely accused and imprisoned for the rape of an immigrant woman. For me, it highlighted the importance of community ties and what happens when families (even chosen ones) face a social environment that is designed to abuse them.