February Books

I had a DNF

My friend Phylicia Masonheimer’s new book, Every Woman A Theologian, releases today. It’s an intro to systematic theology and if you want to start learning theological concepts, it’s a resource made for you!

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I had a DNF this month.¹ While I have no problems putting down a book that I’m not into, it doesn’t happen often. I know what I’m interested in and I get recommendations from people who rarely let me down. However, I will DNF a book. It’s essential to my reading practice.

Sometime, maybe two years ago, I read The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. It’s a dystopian novel, which despite my recent adventure with 1984, is not my favorite sort of novel.² However, Butler is a stunning writer.³ When my parents sent me a gift card to our amazing local bookstore for my birthday, I wandered around with the intent of buying fiction. I got The Color Purple, The Great Gatsby, 1984, and The Fledgling by Octavia Butler. 

I genuinely don’t remember how much attention I paid to the blurb on the back. But The Fledgling is definitely a vampire novel. Now, I read the Twilight series when I was in college and it was the rage, and I was fascinated and disturbed and remained disturbed. I haven’t touched a vampire anything since, but an Octavia Butler vampire novel will not be Twilight. That I’m convinced of.