2021
2021
This year was my first year of college. I had a lot of learning experiences- and a lot of homework. Throughout the semester, I read a lot of books for my classes. Throughout the year... not so many.
Bookie's Reading List! :
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| Caligula, marble bust. Artist Unknown. A.D. 37-41 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
- In my 8th grade humanities class, we were told never to look up Caligula because of his horrific reign. So, naturally, whenever I see the name Caligula I get interested. I read a couple chapters of this biography before I got busy, and I'd suggest it to anyone looking to annotate a book. The first chapter is filled with complex family trees and wars, so I'd suggest skipping ahead to learn about Caligula's awesome reign of the Roman Empire.
Bresnan, Patrick. “Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought.” Amazon, Routledge, 2021, www.amazon.com/Awakening-Introduction-History-Eastern-Thought/dp/1138063959.
- I read this (text)book as part of this humanities class! Everything I've done this semester, every discussion post, every blog post, has been influenced by this book. It explores Asia's major religions and philosophies- not just their principles, but their origins and influences. This book was very helpful and is definitely worth the read if you want to ponder the world.
Hawley, Jack. The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library, 2011.
- This book was also part of my humanities course this semester, and it is an English translation of the Hindu text, The Bhagavad Gita. In the Bhagavad Gita, the warrior Arjuna must fight his stepbrothers, the Kauravas. Arjuna and his brothers, the Pandavas, are the rightful heirs to the throne, but they were exiled and nearly died at the hands of the Kauravas. Arjuna struggles to fight the Kauravas, because their ranks include his family and companions. However, Arjuna's charioteer, the god Krishna, encourages him to push through because it his dharma. To understand dharma, you should read the Bhagavad Gita!
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| Arjuna Artist Unknown. Ubud, Bali. |
Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake. Mariner Books, 2019.
- The Namesake is about a Bengali-American family and their new lives in America. The first part of the novel helps us understand the parents' journey to America- how they met, fell in love, and had kids in an unfamiliar corner of the world. The second part follows their son, Nikhil through his adolescence and adulthood, and how he learns to appreciate his culture and his namesake. It's a touching novel about family and immigrants.
McEwan, Ian, and Claire Messud. Atonement. Everyman's Library, 2017.
- Atonement by Ian McEwan is a novel about forgiveness, honesty, and sexuality. It explores how one seeks forgiveness and how another dishes it out. McEwan analyzes the criminalization of sexuality in the early-to-mid-1900s, as well as how truth is truly subjective. Atonement is a beautiful piece of fiction that made me experience all 5 stages of grief and led to an existential crisis. That being said, I'd definitely read the book if you like drama and gossip- because all the events are told from multiple perspectives, meaning you get everyone's recount and perspective.
Miller, Madeline. The Song of Achilles. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011.
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| Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles |
A third of my reading list this year was devoted to my humanities course, of which a final project about Asia's religions was assigned. This project allowed me and my groupmates to use all of our blog and discussion posts from throughout the year to analyze how Asia's religions affected their civilizations. I enjoyed this project because it felt like all of my hard work throughout the year was being put to use, and I could narrow it down to the intersection of religion and government (something I think about a lot). My group was highly collaborative- each of us decided to focus on one aspect of religion and society and we split up the intros and conclusions of each civilization. We did end up having to cover some of our groupmates' work, so that took up a little more time too. Thus, in total, I spent roughly 6 hours on the project over the course of a couple weeks. It took me roughly 30 minutes to format the slides, most of which was finding hexacodes that aligned with our team aesthetic.
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Funabori no Fujizuka (Mini-Fuji) built of lava rocks |
I was most interested in learning about Asian architecture and how it relates to religion. I learned a little bit about this during the Chinese unit when we discussed how Chinese emperors erected massive tombs for themselves during their range. And also in the Japan unit when I did my own research on fujizukas.
This class was the highlight of my homework sessions. Taking classical humanities over the summer made me very excited to learn more about the field, and I was not disappointed. The assignments were interesting and encouraged me to go outside of my comfort zone. At the beginning of the semester, I hoped to learn more about Asian religions, and I did. In prior classes Asia's religions and philosophies were glossed over, but in this class I was able to interact with and learn more about them. Coming into this class, I didn't know much about the Asian humanities. However, I had a basic idea of the religions and an understanding of Japanese art. Now, I'm walking away with a complex understanding of Asian religions and societies!
Works Cited
“Arjuna.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/Arjuna#/media/1/34856/145209.
Greve, G. (2015, November 29). Fujizuka Mounds. Fujizuka mounds. Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://edoflourishing.blogspot.com/2015/11/fujizuka-mounds.html.
“Marble Portrait Bust of the Emperor Gaius, Known as Caligula.” Metmuseum.org, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/248851.
Miller, Madeline. “The Song of Achilles: A Novel.” Amazon, Ecco, 28 Aug. 2012, www.amazon.com/Song-Achilles-Novel-Madeline-Miller/dp/0062060627.
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