February books

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Yuval Harari

The Luminous Heart of Jonah S

Gina Nahai

a story about Iranian immigrants. the author attempted a magical realism style, which worked for most of the book and was full of promises, but became ineffective towards the end. consequently the reading experience was also uneven - I felt like to rate it highly most of the time, but eventually recognized it as a great effort. the misfortunes that befell on main protagonists were so relentless and breath-taking that pretty much wiped out all reader's patience and pitiful expectation for some "magical" turn of life. "beyond reach", which I watched recently, had the same pitiful. it does not make a good book when the realism overwhelms the art.

still, I learned much about the recent history of Iran and the kind of general cultural and mental states of its people, Iranian Jews in particular. They are unique but also share surprisingly common traits with other immigrants. Even their self-consciousness often reminds me of that of Chinese immigrants. “Oh, humanity”!

"the brief history of tomorrow" was a nice surprise. i enjoyed it much more than "sapiens" and had spent a torturous amount of time writing the book review.