Matu Santamaria Santamaria itibaren Suchanówko, Poland itibaren Suchanówko, Poland

For those of us that can't grow up. Kekeke.

Ben likes women even more than you! This book is a very strange and smart diversion--like halloumi cheese.

Here it is. Brides, you can finally know what your guy is thinking (or blatantly NOT thinking). Someday, when I get married, I'm going to buy a copy of this and highlight it for my groom. Hilarious. It operates on the principle of "do as I say, not as I did", telling grooms how to get to the altar in one piece. Not that you necessarily should take advice from a guy who left his reception to play blackjack with the boys, but if you're willing to be open-minded, you're up for many laughs and may even learn a thing or two in the process.

Anna Karenina is a masterpiece that deserves a higher rating than I give it, and it would have gotten one if I had stopped reading after Part 7, but when a book's conclusion espouses a philosophy/theology that is the exact opposite of the one I endorse, it's hard not to leave it with a bad impression. The positives: This sprawling family and society epic, though light on plot by modern standards, is constantly searching, constantly thinking and, most importantly, constantly illuminating the inner workings of its characters. It's greatest strength is as a work of psychology. Each character has a complex inner makeup, and within that framework their individual quests for meaning take a unique, personal turn. The negative: For Levin, my favorite and I believe the most relatable character, this turn is unfortunately towards a blind Christian faith, in which he abandons the life of the mind in favor of unquestioning acceptance of a new-found religiosity. Worst of all are the moments when he wants his faith to be like that of a child, which seems like such an obviously flawed shunning of adult intellect, and since this revelation is presented as a resolution to the whole 800-page novel, I felt so completely let down at the end that the winning aspects of Tolstoy's work were replaced by distaste. This feeling was made stronger by the fact that secular humanism was treated throughout the book with respect, as virtuous, so that when it is, as a worldview, at the last moment, undercut by, what for me are philosophically (and theologically) unsound propositions, it is a disappointment. Despite my criticisms, which are less of the book as a whole, Anna Karenina should be read. It holds an important place in literature, and rightly so, even if I disagree with it.