Peter Andrus

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Peter is Currently Reading

Peter Andrus is currently reading

Les Misérables

by Victor Hugo

bookshelves: we-should-read, currently-reading

Reading for the 3rd time

read in June 2018

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Peter Andrus said: " The first time I finished this book I was on a train from Berlin bound for Frankfurt. I was on my honeymoon. My wife was asleep next to me. When i finished i went into the bathroom of the train, sobbed like a child for about 5 minutes, then came back The first time I finished this book I was on a train from Berlin bound for Frankfurt. I was on my honeymoon. My wife was asleep next to me. When i finished i went into the bathroom of the train, sobbed like a child for about 5 minutes, then came back to our room. She woke up a few minutes later, took a look at me, and exclaimed "What happened?!".

This time, my wife sat next to me as I sobbed. She had just put our 3 kids to bed, an activity I usually help with, but had asked to be excused from so i could finish this book.

I love this book. This book is what literature is all about. YES, Hugo can be long-winded at times. YES, he uses the phrase "and this thing requires a slight digression" too much. YES, it is hard to get through, but this is a book that defines great literature. It is meticulously plotted, almost impossibly so. When Marius makes his final discovery, it will LITERALLY leave you breathless, needing rest from the emotional roller-coaster you've been through.

This book is like scripture to me. So many good lessons, so many amazing quotes. I'll come back later and add some of the best. I used a highlighter this time through and it was SO worth it.

the first time i read it i focused on Jean Valjean's redemption. This is absolutely the main arc of the story, and the most important, but there are SO many other amazing stories and themes: How bad judgement calls can affect others, justice vs mercy, the powerful affect love can have on one's life trajectory, how we choose to treat people affecting their entire lives, our inability to see the person beneath the exterior, allowing one act to define a person's entire life

There are themes in this book that resonate with our current political climate. I was especially affected this time by the Champmathieu affair this time. Jean Valjean had every excuse to say that he would let Champmathieu take the blame as Jean Valjean. Champmathieu was already a criminal, so he was guilty of a crime, and Jean Valjean's fall from grace would precipitate the fall of an entire region's economic prosperity (which, we learn, it ultimately did). In the musical he sings "if i speak, i am condemned, if i stay silent, i am damned!". So touching, and in this book his inner turmoil is even more eloquently spelled out. This is a situation we all find ourselves in, from time to time. Speak and have consequences, or just keep your mouth shut and let others take the blame for you.

I hope all will give this book a read with a highlighter. it is NOT a book to breeze through in a week. Like the Bible, it is something to read slowly and to ponder from time to time. i love it.

to give a perspective on this, i started it last year. i read up until after the incident where Marius works with Javert. Then, i put it down for like 6 months. i picked it back up around January and have been hacking away slowly for months. It was worth it, and now i have a marked up copy i can use for lessons and quotes and such!

a few words about Abridged vs Unabridged version.... I tried reading the abridged, and so many essential elements of the plot were removed i had a hard time following some of it. I HIGHLY recommend the unabridged version. go all in. live life. read the unabridged! ...more "

progress:

(15%)
— Aug 06, 2026 09:09AM

Jun 26, 2018 01:08PM · see review

Peter Andrus is currently reading

How to Be an Antiracist

by Ibram X. Kendi (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in January 2021

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progress:

(page 45 of 305)
"It is a Racial Crime to be non-white in the United States" — Jan 11, 2021 08:44PM

Jan 20, 2021 12:30PM

Peter Andrus is currently reading

Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds

by John Fugelsang

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Mar 23, 2026 10:26PM

See all 7 books that Peter is reading…

Peter’s Notes & Highlights

Book cover for Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland

Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland by Jonathan M. Metzl

5 highlights

At the same time, investing such deep authority into externalized objects is complicated. Psychiatrists like me sometimes think that men who outsource their sense of power onto external objects—and particularly onto objects shaped like ...more