I’m good at starting books. Sometimes I don’t finish them, or I take my own sweet time. This year I was doing a lot of research, so my bookshelf was a mix of critical pop culture, heavy phenomenology, heavier satanic panic books, and reflective Christian books – with some fiction for bedtimes.
Culture
Taylor Swift: Culture, Capital and Critique (McCann Faichney, Trelease and Whatman)
I was writing a book chapter for a religion studies book on Taylor Swift and ordered this to get a recent Australian scholarly perspective. My favourite chapters explored how Taylor Swift sells intimacy and friendship in a neo-liberal feminist context. Gen Z and Millennials are used to self-promotion and social media, so they don’t find Taylor Swift’s friendship as ‘product’ problematic. For die-hard Swifties or critical pop culture nerds.
Against the Machine (Paul Kingsnorth)
Kingsnorth brings a fresh perspective to Christian thought and cultural analysis. This book shows Kingsnorth has grasped the gospel, unrolling it in unique way. Drawing on historical movements, literature, liturgical tradition and his own eclectic approach to scholarship, Kingsnorth is a rare writer with a vivid grasp of people, technology, and culture. He makes you think, feel, and see in ways you never have before. A convert from eco-paganism to the orthodox faith, his work can be given away to intellectual and curious friends who are considering Christianity and its place in society.
Society and History
Our Secular Age: Ten Years of Reading and Applying Charles Taylor (Colin Hansen, ed.)
I picked this one up because it had a chapter about horizontal transcendence in popular secular music by Mike Cosper – Piercing the Immanent Frame with an Ultralight Beam: Kanye and Charles Taylor. This book is now about seven years old but it’s interesting to see how influential Charles Taylor has been on contemporary cultural engagement. It’s a short, accessible book for people who are interested in applying Taylor to contemporary culture. A good introduction to Charles Taylor for those daunted by the thought of reading his 700-ish page book A Secular Age.
Talk of the Devil: Repressed Memory & The Ritual Abuse Witch Hunt (Richard Guilliatt)
Richard Guilliat provides a comprehensive exploration of the Australian satanic panic. If you aren’t familiar, the satanic panic was a widespread belief that satanic cults were abusing children in the 1980’s. Later, in the 1990’s, adult women claimed to remember being tortured by satanic cults wearing regalia with a variety of shocking instruments. Fortunately, it’s likely that these events did not happen, but hypnotherapy techniques may have contributed to false memories that are nonetheless traumatic to read. Many of the repressed “memories” retrieved by women seeking help for depression involved rituals that don’t bear repeating in this short reflection. The Satanic Panic was a period in history that united unlikely groups (radical feminists, conservative Christians, hypnotherapists) to develop social work and police procedure to prevent something that never happened from happening again. The book warns us to watch for similar unlikely groups uniting over something and discern whether the panic is real or fake.
Fiction
Mercy (aka The Keeper of Lost Things) (Jussi Asdler-Olsen)
My library technician loves crime novels, and I’ve found them a satisfying escape this year. I read many of them, some fluffy, some great, some disturbing, some a bit silly. Mercy by Jussi Adler- Olsen stood out to me. It has all the usual ingredients, a hard-boiled, traumatised cop, a frustrated boss, a simple sidekick, who is more competent than he lets on and a case that only the protagonist and his team can solve. This story follows a cold-case investigation that turns out to be hotter than Carl (our wonderfully cynical protagonist) could ever realise. The Netflix adaption (Titled Dept Q) with Matthew Goode and Kelly McDonald is one of the best adaptions of a novel I’m seen in years.
