I read this book for my Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club; alas, I will not be attending the meeting next Tuesday, as my other book club is meeting on the same...moreI read this book for my Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club; alas, I will not be attending the meeting next Tuesday, as my other book club is meeting on the same night. And I enjoyed this Tolkien book, which is an expanded version of one of the stories in The Similarion, which I know and love.
During the First Age of Middle Earth, the Elves were in a great struggle with Morgoth, who had been Melkor, one of the Valar who had created Middle Earth; but Melkor decided to rule in Hell rather than serve in Heaven, and came down to Middle Earth to rule.
Among the Houses of Men allied with the Elves were the House of Hador and the House of Bëor; two female cousins of the House of Bëor married two brothers of the House of Hador, Húrin and Huor. The brothers fought in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, “the Battle of Unnumbered Tears”, against Morgoth; Huor was slain, and Húrin was captured by Morgoth. As Húrin’s will remained unbroken, Morgoth cursed his children, and set Húrin in a high place to watch the doom of his children (his son Túrin, just eight years old, and his unborn daughter).
What happens to Túrin is the heart of the book; his sister comes late into the story, but her doom enmeshes with his. Essentially, Túrin is a tragic flawed hero, quick of anger and resistant to taking good counsel; and it is not going too far to say that everything he touches participates in his doom.
I regret not being able to discuss this book with my Sci-Fi Fantasy book club, but I am glad to have read this book.(less)
I somehow missed reading this classic work of literature in my youth, but I am glad I picked it up to read at the used book store, because it’s a wond...moreI somehow missed reading this classic work of literature in my youth, but I am glad I picked it up to read at the used book store, because it’s a wonderful story, by a great storyteller, even in translation; and I may lend it to my son, who is in the Navy working on nuclear submarines, to see what he thinks of the book.
It is 1866, and a mysterious creature (that some think may be an enormous narwhal) is threatening shipping around the world. The U. S. Navy dispatches the Abraham Lincoln, under the command of Captain Farragut, to find and destroy whatever this creature may be. Also on board the Abraham Lincoln are Professor Pierre Aronnax, a noted French marine biologist, the professor’s faithful servant Conseil (of a very calm disposition), and a French-Canadian harpooner named Ned Land, who is a man of action.
In the Pacific near Japan, the Abraham Lincoln finds the mysterious creature; when the ship attacks, the ship’s steering is damaged at the same time that M. Aronnax and Ned Land are thrown overboard (Conseil, being a faithful servant, dives overboard to be with his master). The trio find themselves on top of the “creature”, which turns out to be an ultra-modern submarine, commanded by the designer of the submarine, one Captain Nemo, who gravely tells the trio that they can never leave the Nautilus.
For the next six or seven months, M. Aronnax, Conseil, and Ned Land are involuntary guests of Captain Nemo, whose submarine takes them through the seven seas. (The French title of the book, Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, refers to “seas”, not “sea”; and the 20,000 Leagues of the title (equal to 60,000 miles) is a measure of the distance traveled by the Nautilus, not the depth under the surface of the sea.) Through many adventures, they ponder the inscrutable character of Captain Nemo, who is a polymath with a devout hatred of Man, but with a sympathy towards individual oppressed men.
There are many unbelievable things in this book, and many of them doubtlessly slipped right past me; the author apparently wrote the book with a World Atlas on one hand and an Oceanographic textbook on the other; the narrator, M. Aronnax, gives the route of the Nautilus in great detail, and the flora and fauna of the Seven Seas in even more detail. Jules Verne, however, can carry the unbelievable off, and it is a great tale of the (imagined) seas.
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This fun non-fiction book has to do with Fonts, and tells one everything one ever wanted to know about Fonts. I very much enjoyed reading this book, a...moreThis fun non-fiction book has to do with Fonts, and tells one everything one ever wanted to know about Fonts. I very much enjoyed reading this book, and must confess that at one time I was a fan of Comic Sans MS.
Each chapter in this book deals with one aspect or another about fonts, such as the history of fonts, people who have designed fonts, and the proliferation of fonts in the computer age (largely driven by Microsoft). Between each chapter is a “font break”, a chapter about the history of a particular font.
Before reading this book, my font of choice on my computer and BlackBerry was Kingthings Foundation. While reading the book I was inspired to try out different fonts, and can now report that I have changed to – Kingthings Foundation. But I still loved reading the book.(less)
This is a splendidly large book that gives the history of The Bible, which the author allows is a very emotionally charged subject, as very few people...moreThis is a splendidly large book that gives the history of The Bible, which the author allows is a very emotionally charged subject, as very few people have neutral views of it. The author does a very good job of explaining the changes that have happened to the Bible over the centuries, and I am very happy to have read this book and to have my own copy on my shelves.
After an Introduction, the book begins with Latin Bibles from Jerome to Charlemagne, and continues with various Bibles (or what we now know as Bibles) from that point, through history, to the present time; the last chapter deals with the search for ancient Bibles, which brings us back to Saint Jerome again. Throughout the book are full-color plates illustrating pages of manuscripts (which are especially stunning when considering medieval bibles), and copious illustrations of people and places mentioned in the text.
This is almost a coffee-table book, though not quite large enough; the author is very thorough on all aspects of Bible history, including the changes wrought by the invention of the printing press and the effects of the Protestant Reformation on Bibles. There is also a chapter on Missionary Bibles; the Catholics would send priests to perform liturgy and conduct instruction to pagan lands, while the Protestants sent missionaries with bibles, on the very Protestant view that anyone reading the Bible (especially in one’s native tongue) would automatically see the light of Protestant Christianity.
I am very glad that I purchased this book at some past point (a sticker on the front of my copy says “Half Price Books $9.98″) because it is a marvelous resource on the formation of The Bible as we know it today, whether we may be Jewish, Catholic, or Protestant.(less)
This is a marvelous book about fencing by Richard Cohen, a British fencer who competed at three Olympic Games. He goes into just about everything that...moreThis is a marvelous book about fencing by Richard Cohen, a British fencer who competed at three Olympic Games. He goes into just about everything that is possible to discuss about fencing, which has always been a sport that has fascinated me. This history goes into dueling, history, world figures, swords in literature, the stage, and movies, the making of swords – just about the only thing not included is the swordplay in the Kill Bill movies, which came out after the 2002 publication date of this book. (Alas.)
After a Prologue, the book has several main sections: From Egypt to Waterloo (containing a chapter on France In The Age of The Musketeers), The Search for Perfection, The Duels High Noon, Wounded Warriors (the chapter Scars of Glory has to do with the specialized dueling at German universities), Great Powers, and Faustian Pacts (about cheating at this most honorable of sports).
The author, being a fencer of renown himself, goes into great detail about world champion and Olympic champion fencers of the past and present, possibly into too much detail. At the same time, I would have appreciated very basic photos and explanations as to the differences between foil, épée, and sabre, both in terms of the weapons themselves and what parts of the body are legitimate targets (which information, of course, one can get online).
With those caveats, this is a dandy book, giving you everything you ever wanted to know about swords, sword-fighting, and fencing.(less)
I finished this wonderful novel, set mostly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in a medical setting and told by one of two identical twins, just in time to disc...moreI finished this wonderful novel, set mostly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in a medical setting and told by one of two identical twins, just in time to discuss it at our Third Tuesday Book Club meeting tonight. The book contains love, war, tragedy, comedy, abandonment, and redemption, and I loved every moment of reading it.
In 1954 two identical twins are born in the Mission Hospital in Addis Abba (which is called the Missing Hospital by one and all); they are mirror image twins, and grow up at the mission. Their mother dies in childbirth, and their father abandons them by leaving Missing and never returning, so they are raised by the Indian gynecological and obstetrician surgeon at Missing. Growing up in a medical setting (all the poor of Addis Ababa come to their clinics), the twins witness the changes wrought in Ethiopia by coup and revolution. Born of an English father and an Indian mother, the twins, although born and raised at Missing, are considered to be foreigners by the general populace of Ethiopia, and most of the characters are in some sort of exile.
This was a stunning book, and hard for me to put down; the plot takes unexpected twists and turns, and does the unexpected with its characters, who remain totally in character. And I anticipate a good Book Club meeting tonight.(less)
This slender little book is about the author’s attempt to have the reader consider a Labyrinth as not just a circular path of many turns to the center...moreThis slender little book is about the author’s attempt to have the reader consider a Labyrinth as not just a circular path of many turns to the center, but as a metaphor for life. I found it very fascinating, as I enjoy labyrinths myself.
In the first third of the book the author and his wife, being between jobs, put their furniture in storage and leave their native Innsbruck, Austria in a travel trailer and with their two year old daughter in search of labyrinths in Western Europe. In the second third, he goes to see labyrinths while considering designing one, and in the third half, he sees more labyrinths while constructing a couple of temporary labyrinths in Innsbruck using candles to mark the paths.
Each very short chapter is headed by a sketch of a labyrinth and an affirmative saying from the author; the chapter detail the author’s goal of defining life as a labyrinth. To him, life is not a maze, where there are many wrong possible turnings and an uncertainty of success; rather, it is a single path, albeit with many turnings towards and away from the center until one finally reaches the center. Once at the center, one follows a single path, again with turnings, to exit that particular labyrinth; and when one exits, or feels that one has exited, a labyrinth, one essentially enters another one. The basic question posed by a labyrinth is, “Do you stop here, or do you move on?”
With thirty-eight chapters, there are a lot of affirmational sayings; my favorite is “If life is viewed as a maze, every mistake is an unnecessary detour and a waste of time. If life is a labyrinth, then every mistake is a part of the path and an indispensable master teacher.” And later this week, I will go visit the only nearby labyrinth I know, in Grand Coteau; and that, I think, is a measure of how much I enjoyed this book.(less)
I had read this slender little volume of geometrical satire at some time before I started keeping book lists (i.e,, before 1999), but I read it again ...moreI had read this slender little volume of geometrical satire at some time before I started keeping book lists (i.e,, before 1999), but I read it again over the past two days because I am going to the Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club Meeting tonight (for the first time) to discuss this book. I loved this book before, and I love it now; and one really does not need to know much more geometry than the difference between a right triangle and an isosceles triangle to understand this book.
Written in 1884, by an educator with a divinity degree who believed that, ultimately, all things have logical explanations (even so-called miraculous happenings), the book is in two sections. The narrator of each section is A. Square, a resident of Flatland, a two-dimensional universe peopled by geometric shapes. The first section of the book explains how Flatland operates; among other facts, the more angles one has, the more status one has, and only perfectly regular figures are allowed to live and propagate.
The second section begins at the end of the second millenium of Flatland; after A. Square dreams of visiting a one-dimensional universe (the residents are all straight lines, all end to end), he in turn is visited by what appears to be a Circle of mysterious varying diameter. This Circle is actually a Sphere from the Third-Dimensional Universe, come to enlighten A. Square about the essential geometric poverty of his Two-Dimensional Universe.
This little book is actually a fairly good introduction to basic geometrical concepts; it also has a certain metaphysical bent, as each universe portrayed has the experience of a visitor from the universe just above it in geometric terms. And I look forward to discussing the book at the Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club meeting tonight.(less)
I had always understood that during the time when the Nazis were in control of Germany the Christian Churches were lonely bastions of sanity, defendin...moreI had always understood that during the time when the Nazis were in control of Germany the Christian Churches were lonely bastions of sanity, defending human rights against the evil Nazis and only accommodating to the Nazis insofar as was absolutely necessary for the survival of the Churches. This very scholarly book tells a very different story, and I am very glad I read it, although, since the book reads very much like a thesis, it is not at all a book for the popular press.
The Germans had lost the First World War, and there were many elements within Germany who blamed the Jews for the outcome. The Nazis came to power on a platform of saving Germany and making Germany great again by eliminating non-Aryans, especially those non-Aryans who were Jewish (and who thus were determined to destroy Germany). Meanwhile, the Christian Churches (almost entirely Lutheran) had a turf war, between those who felt that the Old Testament should be retained and those who felt that the Old Testament should be thrown out as being too Jewish. At this same time, theologians, working with the pervasive anti-Semitism within the church, worked to determine that Jesus was not Jewish, and that it was his opposition to the Jews that got him crucified. In 1939 theologians opened the Institut zur Erforschung und Beseitigung des J’udischen Einflusses auf das Deutsche Kirchliche Leben (Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Church Life), which worked closely with the government and the University of Jena in producing papers, conferences, and a New Testament that were shorn of Jewish content, in accordance with Nazi racism.
Essentially, the entire German people were subject to a pervasive anti-Semitism in favor of what was truly German. (We in America have no grounds to be smug; racism against people of color was simply accepted as the prevailing way of life until the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960′s.) The Nazis essentially took this anti-Semitism to a whole new level, pledging to make Germany great by removing all Jews and Jewish influence on German life, and the churches had no problem at all with this policy. As Jesus had fought valiantly against the Jews, so Hitler was fighting valiantly against the same Jews who wished to destroy Germany.
This is a very complex book, with a horrifying subject; I had no clue that organized religion worked so closely with the Nazis, although organized religion did not want to know the details of just how the Jews were being “removed” from German life. But I feel better for having learned about this subject (forewarned is forearmed), and I would recommend this book to anyone who is willing to wade through the forest of details contained in this book.(less)
Comparing the lives and impact of Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC/BCE to 30–36 AD/CE) and of Muhammad of Mecca (570 to 632) is a daunting prospect, given th...moreComparing the lives and impact of Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC/BCE to 30–36 AD/CE) and of Muhammad of Mecca (570 to 632) is a daunting prospect, given the emotional impact those men have had on humanity worldwide, and given the lack of pure historical detail available for each man, but the author of this book has done a very good job of comparing the two men, given the resources available. I very much enjoyed this book; as a somewhat devout but well-read Roman Catholic, I am very familiar with Jesus of Nazareth, and nowhere near as familiar with Muhammad of Mecca, and I felt this book filled a void in my knowledge.
After an introduction, the author sets each man in his setting (first-century Palestine vs. seventh-century Arabia), determines which source documents on each man’s life and teachings are to be relied on and how much reliance a historian can place on each source, then considers each man’s early life biography (Jesus in Galilee, Muhammad in Mecca), his words and teachings, his later life biography (Jesus in Jerusalem, Muhammad in Medina), and the legacy of each man (how each man’s followers did, or did not, stay with their leader’s message).
The book ends rather abruptly, which I found disconcerting; surely an Epilogue summing everything up would not have been out of place. Otherwise, I found this book to be a fascinating window on how a historian, using historical method, treats these two men who have had arguably the greatest effect on mankind in the last 2,000 years.(less)
The author grew up in California, the only daughter of an Irani mother and a German father, and as she grew up American rather than Irani, her mother ...moreThe author grew up in California, the only daughter of an Irani mother and a German father, and as she grew up American rather than Irani, her mother would compare her with the Good Daughter back in Iran, who was a girl devoted to her mother and who would never dream of dating or wearing short skirts or rebelling against her mother’s authority. The author grew up and moved to New York; in her middle twenties her father died, and when she and her mother were sorting through boxes, the author found a wedding photo of her mother, aged about fourteen, with a man who was not the author’s father. From this beginning comes a riveting tale of the lives of the author’s mother and grandmothers in Iran, in a book that I very much enjoyed reading.
Once the author confronts her mother Lili with the photo, the mother refuses to speak of it; but then, with the author back in New York, the mother begins sending her cassette tapes (ten in all), telling of her life in Tehran and of the lives of her own mother, her grandmother, and of the “Good Daughter”, the half-sister that the author never even knew she had. The tapes tell of an Iran in which veiled women live at home (rarely getting an education of any kind) before a husband is selected for any given woman by her family, following the confirmation of the bride’s virginity. Women have no real existence outside of the lives of their husbands or sons; A husband’s authority over his wife (or wives) is absolute; and divorce is unheard of, as a divorced woman is considered to be damaged goods and unmarriageable.
As we learn of the lives of Lili’s grandmothers, of her mother and father, and of her own life, kept hidden from her American daughter, we see an Iran that is gradually becoming more Western under the influence of the Shahs of the House of Pavlavi, Rezā Shāh (ruled 1925 – 1941) and his son Mohammad Rezā Shāh (ruled 1941 – 1979). The book reads like a novel, as the author herself does not arrive in the story until relatively near the end of the book. But the author realizes that each of the women in her family history worked with what they had to make their lives better and to try to improve the lives of their daughters, in the best way they could manage.
It is observed midway through the book that foreigners either see Iran as the cradle of civilization and culture or as a Medieval backwater; after reading this book, one realizes that the truth of Iran before the 1979 Revolution lies, as usual, somewhere in between the two extremes. And I very much enjoyed reading this book, and I will thank the member of my Third Tuesday Book Club who lent the book to me when I see her at this month’s Book Club Meeting and return the book to her.(less)
Generally I avoid Chicken Soup books like the plague, as books purposefully written to be heartwarming are normally not anything I would want to read....moreGenerally I avoid Chicken Soup books like the plague, as books purposefully written to be heartwarming are normally not anything I would want to read. (Once I counted all the Chicken Soup books at Barnes & Noble, and came up with about 35 titles, not including Chicken Soup for the Soul of Harry Potter’s Podiatrist.) However, my sister read this book and gave it to me, and told me to read it, so I have; and I found it surprisingly readable (and heartwarming), since I am a confirmed cat person from way back. (We currently technically have six cats, but two of them have also be adopted by neighbors, leaving us with four core cats and a few other cats who come by to eat now and again.)
The book’s stories, none longer than a couple of pages, are written by 101 different authors; each story is prefaced by a famous author quote about cats, and scattered through the book are cat-related Off the Mark cartoons by Mark Parisi. The stories in the beginning have to do with kittens, mostly, with the stories in the middle having to do with teenage and established settled cats. This means that the stories at the end of this collection have to do with cats making that journey over the Rainbow Bridge, which can be a tad depressing.
One hears over and over in the stories of people who had no intention of getting a cat ending up with one, either because they picked up a cat at the shelter or because the cat adopted them by simply showing up at the back door. Cats purr, scratch, leave dead mice for their owners, get spayed / neutered, and in general creep into the hearts of their people. Again and again, cats which seemed aloof become caring when one of their persons or another cat is ill or in need of solace.
This would be a wonderful book for a cat lover; the stories are indeed heartwarming (yes, I know I used that word three times, but this is a Chicken Soup book), and make a cat lover want to go out and adopt more cats (or be adopted by more cats).
This science fiction novel is the third in the Hyperion Cantos, which starts with Hyperion and continues with The Fall of Hyperion. I had read those t...moreThis science fiction novel is the third in the Hyperion Cantos, which starts with Hyperion and continues with The Fall of Hyperion. I had read those two books before (and the final book in the series, The Rise of Endymion), but had never read this third book. I am very glad I did so; it is a very good book, with lots of good hard science and a somewhat unwilling hero helping to guard a young girl who is a threat to the established order of the universe.
It is some 274 years after the events in the previous book; with the Farcasters non-operative, and contact between worlds cut off, the power that now controls most of the known Universe is the Roman Catholic Church, with its own military and spacegoing arm. Under Pope Julius VI, who has been Pope for something more than 250 years. The Church has introduced two new Sacraments: the Acceptance of the Cruciform and the Resurrection. Acceptance of the Cruciform means that one becomes effectively immortal; when one dies, after three days one is resurrected. This means that the Archangel class of spaceships can fly faster than hyperspace, killing its passengers, who are then resurrected upon arrival at the ship’s destination.
The one person who was on the Pilgrimage in the first two books and who is still alive is the poet Martin Silenus on the planet Hyperion. He rescues a 27-year old man named Raul Endymion from being executed and commissions him to rescue his niece Aenea (who stepped into a Time Tomb some 262 years before, and is due to be stepping out in several days) and to keep her from being taken by the Church. The Church as assigned Father Captain Federico de Soya, with absolute authority, to be the officer charged with apprehending the girl and bringing her to the Church planet of Pacem. The book then turns into a fascinating cat-and-mouse game; for some reason, the farcasters work for Aenea, Raul, and A. Bettik (a blue-skinned android), and Father Captain de Soya chases them through the universe.
This was a marvelously good book, and I am very glad to have read it; as reading the fourth book before reading the third book does create a certain amount of confusion in my mind. And in due time I will re-read The Rise of Endymion).(less)
This slender book was my bedtime reading for several nights; although some of the stories are dated (the book was published in 1976), I found all of t...moreThis slender book was my bedtime reading for several nights; although some of the stories are dated (the book was published in 1976), I found all of the stories (most in translation) to be very good, and I enjoyed reading stories that I had never seen before.
The stories represented in this volume come from Europe (“First Confession:, Frank O’Connor, Ireland; “En Route”, Slawomir Mrozek, Poland), Asia (“The Foal”, Mikhail Sholokhov, U.S.S.R.; “Mrs. Li’s Hair”, Yeh Shao-Chün, China; “The Hateful Age”, Niwa Fumio, Japan), Africa (“As The Night The Day”, Abioseh Nicol, Sierra Leone; “The Bench”, Richard Rive, South Africa), Australia (“The Wedge-Tailed Eagle, Geoffrey Dutton), South America (“Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon”, Gabriel García Márquez, Columbia; “The Third Bank of the River”, João Guimarães Rosa, Brazil) and North America (“The Dark Night of Ramón Yendía”, Lino Novás Calvo, Cuba).
I loved reading each of the stories, most of which come from different cultures than the standard Western 20th-century culture that I am most familiar with; and I am happy to have this book for my own bookshelves.(less)
Ten years ago I was diagnosed with colon cancer; they took out the cancer (including most of my large intestine), rewired my small intestine to my rec...moreTen years ago I was diagnosed with colon cancer; they took out the cancer (including most of my large intestine), rewired my small intestine to my rectum, gave me six month’s worth of light chemotherapy – and I am cancer free to date. (Knock wood.) Five years ago Richard’s sister Pookie died of lung cancer (she never smoked) that had spread throughout her body. So I found this book, written by an oncologist, to be a very fascinating experience into just about anything you ever wanted to know about cancer, And, as there is good reason to believe that cancer will always be with us in one form or another, I can’t think of a soul who would not want to read this book.
In this large volume the author discusses the history of our knowledge of cancer (dating back to 2500 BC), the treatment of cancer (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and designer drugs), the quest for factors that cause and / or predispose one towards having one kind or another kind of cancer (external factors, family history, genetics), and where the whole package of cancer awareness, treatment, and cures stands at the present time. The author is very thorough in discussing each main section, and one senses a sort of frustration in the author when he is discussing extreme radical mastectomies for breast cancer or the history of smoking and lung cancer in Western countries. At one time, there was hope that Cancer could be eradicated if one threw enough government money and research at it, but now, as the understanding of what cancer actually is has improved, there is cautious optimism.
Basically (and it does not hurt to say this here), generally speaking, the ability of medicine to cure a given kind of cancer depends largely on the state the cancer is in when diagnosed. A small discrete tumor usually can be taken care of, while a cancer that has metastasized throughout the body is much harder to treat. (I urge my readers to make sure they get their mammograms, their Pap smears, and all the other screening tests; and the book does go into detail on how a screening tests work, and the problems inherent in such tests.)
I recommend this book to all of my readers; in this 21st century, every one of us knows someone who has cancer, or who died of cancer, so the subject of the book is close to all of us.(less)
The Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) was a monumental undertaking, with some seventy years elapsing between its conception and its completion...moreThe Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) was a monumental undertaking, with some seventy years elapsing between its conception and its completion in 1927. The compiling of all the definitions, and of the quotations that were included in the definitions, was the work of paid editors and unpaid volunteer readers; and this book is the story of one of those editors, one of those readers, and of the history of the Oxford English Dictionary as a whole. And this is a fascinating little book, one that I enjoyed reading.
The author gives us a history of English dictionaries, with particular attention paid to Samuel Johnson’s great Dictionary of 1755 (and no mention whatsoever of Noah Webster, on this side of the Atlantic). In 1857 what became the Oxford English Dictionary was begun, with the novel idea of making it a committee effort, with hundreds and thousands of readers submitting slips containing target words and annotated quotations highlighting the words to the editors. After some initial success, followed by a stalling of effort, the third Editor came on board, Professor James Murray; he revitalized the project and made a fresh call for volunteer readers. A Doctor W. C. Minor, of Broadmoor, Crowthorne, Berks, was one reader who answered the call; and it was some years before the Professor found that Dr. Minor, who had submitted thousands of definitions, was an inmate at the Broadmoor Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
The book tells the history of Professor Murray and of the unfortunate Dr. Minor, who was without doubt insane (with what we now would call paranoid schizophrenia) but who was also quite educated and literate, and how the collaboration between them for better than twenty years was instrumental in the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. The author never lets us lose sight of precisely why Dr. Minor was incarcerated; the book is dedicated “To the memory of G. M.”, George Merrett, the innocent workingman who was shot in cold blood by Dr. Minor in 1872. And I am most happy to have this book for my bookshelves.(less)
What is religion? To many people, it means assenting to a set of beliefs; once you sign on with the beliefs, then you participate in the rituals of th...moreWhat is religion? To many people, it means assenting to a set of beliefs; once you sign on with the beliefs, then you participate in the rituals of that religion. Armstrong’s thesis in this book is basically that such people have the wrong end of the stick; religion is what you do (externally and internally), which leads to belief. I very much enjoyed this book, as I am guilty of thinking both ways.
All of the great religions have as their basis “Love God and love others”; they all have a very specific set of rituals (lighting the Shabbat candles, saying the Rosary, praying five times a day towards Mecca). But even going back to the ancient Greek philosophers, what they offered their disciples was a full way of life, not just a philosophical set of beliefs. The sacred books of each great religion were regarded as not logos (sober history) but as mythos (stories not meant as historical). Mythos was what took you out of yourself; logos was what educated you as to what and how to think.
With the coming of the Enlightenment, scientific method was perfected, and it became normative to think of everything in terms of science. Unfortunately, the “everything” included religion, and once theologians accepted scientific method, mythos went out the window and logos reigned supreme. The result is that today we have people who claim to be agnostics or atheists because of all of the logical discrepancies in the Bible or Torah or other sacred books, and people who refuse to believe in evolution or women’s rights or basic human rights because such concepts cannot be found in their sacred books. The author devotes a good bit of discussion to fundamentalist movements, noting that such movements always begin as a protest against a norm; fundamentalist movements are always paranoid, expecting that everyone else is out to destroy them, and when threatened they respond by becoming even more entrenched and extremist.
I have always remembered that God is not a noun, but a verb, and that one cannot talk the talk unless one first walks the walk. I may not always follow these principles, but I do try; and this book reminds us of why we should try.
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This book is the third in the Ender series, which started with Ender’s Game and continued with Speaker for the Dead; and it helps to have read those b...moreThis book is the third in the Ender series, which started with Ender’s Game and continued with Speaker for the Dead; and it helps to have read those books before reading this one. Suffice it in this first paragraph to note that it is science fiction of the highest quality, and contains good characterization, physics, and alien sentient species, and that I enjoyed reading it.
The story is mostly set on the world of Lusitania, which is in rebellion against the Starways Congress due to events in the previous book. An armada has been sent by Congress, ostensibly to return the planet to the Starways confederation, but actually to destroy the planet, as the planet harbors the descolada virus, which is necessary for the native life of Lusitania, but is deadly (without constant antidotes) to all other life. The fact that destroying the planet would also destroy the pequininos, the only sentient species native to the planet, is apparently considered by Congress to be a necessary evil.
The armada then disappears, and on the Chinese Buddhist world of Path, a brilliant girl named Han Qing-jao, "Gloriously Bright,” is given the task of finding out why the fleet disappeared. Meantime, on Lusitania, Andrew Wiggin has been joined by his sister Valentine, and in conjunction with the scientific minds of Lusitania, they are attempting to discover if the descolada virus can be somehow changed so that it still allows the native life of Lusitania to continue while not being deadly to all other life, and also trying to find some method of faster-than-light travel so that enough alien species can leave the planet before the arrival of the armada.
The series continues with Children of the Mind, which is a book I plan to read early next year, and I will look forward to reading it.
This novel is the sequel to The Bean Trees, continuing the story of Taylor Greer and her adopted daughter Turtle. One does not have to have read the p...moreThis novel is the sequel to The Bean Trees, continuing the story of Taylor Greer and her adopted daughter Turtle. One does not have to have read the previous novel to read this one, but I am glad to have done so; and I loved this book about love, trust, and home.
It is three years since the events in The Bean Trees, and Taylor takes six year old Turtle on a trip from Tuscon to the Grand Canyon. They stop at Hoover Dam near the end of the day on the Saturday before Easter; driving away, Turtle asks how the boy will get out of the hole. During the ensuing conversation, Taylor realizes her daughter saw someone fall off the dam and into a spillway; she turns around, goes back to the dam, and she and Turtle have a very hard time convincing anyone to investigate. The dramatic rescue of the person who fell into the sinkhole makes the national news, and Turtle and Taylor are invited by Oprah Winfrey to be on a show she is doing about children who saved people.
One of those who sees Turtle on Oprah is Annawake Fourkiller, a very young attorney for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma; she realizes that if Turtle is Cherokee there is no way that Taylor’s adoption of her can be legitimate. She investigates the adoption, then goes to Tuscon to talk to Taylor; Taylor, seeing someone who wants to take Turtle away from her, leaves town with Turtle. Meantime, Taylor’s mother Alice has left the husband she married two years ago (he never speaks, puts WD-40 on everything to keep things quiet, and watches QVC all day on TV) and joins the pair in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Eventually, and separately, most of the characters in the book end up in the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma; and Alice, Taylor, and Turtle learn about the Cherokee (to her surprise, Alice finds she is fully one-fourth Cherokee), about why family ties are so important to the Cherokee Nation, and how those family ties impact all of them, especially Turtle.
Every year I get the Old Farmer’s Almanac, usually along about late September, and every year along about late November I read it. I have yearly copie...moreEvery year I get the Old Farmer’s Almanac, usually along about late September, and every year along about late November I read it. I have yearly copies of the Old Farmer’s Almanac going back to 1979, and I love reading each year’s new edition, not only for the weather forecasts but because of all the other information contained in its pages.
Besides the weather forecasts, this issue contains the usual reference information (table of measures, wind chill tables, heat index tables, gestation information on various common animals, astronomical information (the Total Eclipse of the Sun next November will be great to see if you are in Australia), plus various interesting articles concerning gardening, baking, farming, and other household pursuits. This is also a good reference book to turn to if you need to figure out how much wallpaper to use in a room, or to determine which plants would be good to plant to attract butterflies.
Granted, a good bit of this information, if not most of it, can be garnered from the Internet; but I enjoy hanging the current year’s copy of the Almanac on a nail on the bathroom wall using the handy hole punched in the corner, and checking out the information that may be noted for each new day in the Calendar Pages once I wake up each morning. (And who knows; someday I might actually need the Gardening Information in the Almanac.)
This is the book we are discussing in tomorrow night’s Third Tuesday Book Club Meeting; I had read this novel many, many years ago, and was the one to...moreThis is the book we are discussing in tomorrow night’s Third Tuesday Book Club Meeting; I had read this novel many, many years ago, and was the one to suggest it for us to read. I am happy to have done so; a dystopian future-world novel written in 1931 that shows alarming aspects of the world as we know it today is always great to discuss, and I am glad to have read this short book (again).
It is the Year of Our Lord 2542 in London, England; but as the world has been remade by the trinity of Ford, Freud, and Behavior Science and Chemistry, it is 632 A.F. For hundreds of years, sperm and ova have been combined, and the results constantly monitored and chemically altered by the State, so that the resulting infant is already predestined to be a smart Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, or a lowly barely mentally capable Epsilons. The children are then raised by the State and conditioned from birth to be fully content with their state and with their status in life. The only reason for life to be lived is to be happy; the citizens of this future world work happily at their jobs, do group sports, enjoy group entertainment, then engage in (heterosexual) sex with whomever they want, as everyone belongs to everyone else. After work they take soma, the wonder drug that in small doses blisses one out, and in large doses takes one away on a wonderful dream, with no aftereffects and no side effects. Perfect health and looks endure into one’s sixties, at which time one gets senile and dies; no one is unhappy about this, because what matters is the greater society.
One discontented person in this world of bliss is Bernard Marx, a psychologist. He is an Alpha, but is eight centimetres (three inches and change) shorter than the standard Alpha male, and in consequence feels that he does not properly fit into society. His most anti-social behavior is to want to just sit quietly and talk, which suggestion horrifies his girl of the moment, Lenina Crowne. She does, however, take him up on his suggestion that they visit the Reservation in America, mainly because she’s never been; the Reservation holds a remnant of American Indians, who live a primitive, uncivilized, un-Ford life.
What Bernard and Lenina find at the Reservation, and what they bring back to London with them, is at the heart of this dystopian novel, which is a parable against eugenics, against determinism, against recreational drug use as a tool of the State (a daily dose of it is given out to Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons at the end of the work day; Alphas can take it whenever they want), and against a world that has accepted security and happiness as the only goal of one’s life.
Having read the author’s previous books (The Bad Catholic’s Guide to Good Living : A Loving Look at the Lighter Side of the Catholic Faith, with Recip...moreHaving read the author’s previous books (The Bad Catholic’s Guide to Good Living : A Loving Look at the Lighter Side of the Catholic Faith, with Recipes for Feasts and Fun by John Zmirak and Denise Matychowiak, and The Bad Catholic’s Guide to Wine, Whiskey, & Song: A Spirited Look at Catholic Life & Lore from the Apocalypse to Zinfandel by John Zmirak and Denise Matychowiak), I knew what I was in for with this non-fiction book: a very funny, very Catholic, and very irreverent while being reverent book. In this book, the author (by himself this time) tackles the Seven Deadly Sins and their corresponding Virtues; and I loved reading this book.
The Seven Deadly Sins, as outlined and rather graphically described by the author for the modern world, are Lust, Wrath, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth., Vainglory, and Envy; their corresponding Virtues are Chastity, Patience, Temperance, Generosity, Diligence, Humility, and Magnanimosity. For most of the Sins and Virtues, the author also includes famous people who (in his humble opinion) most exemplify the Sin or Virtue under discussion. The Odd chapter numbers are the Sins, while each Sin is followed by its Virtue (in the Even chapter numbers); and after each Virtue chapter, the author has a single-question multiple choice quiz so that the reader can see where he or she ranks in the continuum between Hardened Sinner and Potential Saint.
The author has a solid Catholic education, and while just about anyone would enjoy reading this book (provided they aren’t offended by the irreverentness), I think only a well-educated Catholic would catch all of the puns and references that the author uses. (And while I consider myself a well-educated Catholic, I allow that I may have missed several puns and references.) I loved reading this book, and cannot help but wonder what the author’s next project will be.(less)
This is the novel that our Third Tuesday Book Club read for October; while I did return from our vacation on the Third Tuesday of October, I had not r...moreThis is the novel that our Third Tuesday Book Club read for October; while I did return from our vacation on the Third Tuesday of October, I had not read the book at that point, and was in no shape to go to the Book Club meeting in any case, as we had been on the road all day from Gadsen, Alabama, to Southwestcentral Louisiana, with a detour to meet my daughter and her boyfriend for a late lunch in Baton Rouge. But I have now read this book, and it was literally a book I could not put down, and one that I enjoyed reading.
The book centers on two main characters: scientist Isabel Duncan, at the Great Ape Language Lab in Kansas, and John Thigpen, a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. They meet on January 1, 2009, when Thigpen comes to the lab with another reporter and a photographer to do a human-interest story on the lab’s bonobos, who understand spoken English and ASL, and who communicate with humans via ASL and a touch-screen computer program. Duncan is engaged (though it’s not public) to the lab’s Director, who has been with the lab for less than a year (he came on after the death of the founder of the Language Lab), and is assisted by her intern Celia, who has hot pink hair, several tattoos, and works at the local Humane Shelter. Thigpen is happily married, though he and his wife Amanda have career problems (she wrote a novel, which was published only in paperback before her publishing house died and her agent abandoned her, and she cannot get anyone to even look at the second novel she wrote; Thigpen himself is not happy that he got his current job through personal connections), and they do not have children after eighteen years of marriage, which fact is beginning to become an issue in their relationship.
Shortly after the reporters leave, Isabel is with the bonobos alone, as the intern has gone into town to get caramel macchiatos for the bonobos (at their request). What happens next in the book defines the plot of the book, and takes the human and animal characters (though, after reading the book, it’s hard to think of bonobos as merely animals) through the worlds of trash television, trash journalism, and animal experimentation.
I literally could not put this book down, after I had gotten about half-way through, when all of the characters were going though very individual kinds of dehumanization; and I will say that the bonobos are the most appealing characters, and have much healthier family relationships than the human characters. I am very much looking forward to our next Third Tuesday Book Club Meeting; although they already discussed the book (indeed, we will be discussing Brave New World by Aldous Huxley), I hope that before the meeting we can talk a bit about this book.
I find that short stories make good bedtime reading; and this collection of short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald contains the best of his short writin...moreI find that short stories make good bedtime reading; and this collection of short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald contains the best of his short writing. He may be known now for his novels, but in his own time he was known as a short story writer who sometimes wrote novels. I very much enjoyed reading these stories, which are not all about rich boys and jaded flappers.
Among the stories in this collection are “Bernice Bobs her Hair”, “The Offshore Pirate”, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (a fantasy, if not science fiction), “The Diamond As Big as The Ritz” (another fantasy), “Absolution” (about a small boy who lies in confession to the priest, and naturally expects the fury of God to be visited upon him), “Babylon Revisited” (one of Fitzgerald’s strongest stories), and “Last Kiss”.
If one is only familiar with Fitzgerald’s novels, one owes it to oneself to read at least some of his short stories; and this volume contains wonderful pieces of writing that will raise one’s opinion of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
This non-fiction book, published in 2010, is the final book in the biographical trilogy by the author about Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), The first ...moreThis non-fiction book, published in 2010, is the final book in the biographical trilogy by the author about Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), The first books in the trilogy were The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979, covering the years from his birth in 1858 to his becoming President of the United States in 1901 upon the death of President William McKinley) and Theodore Rex (covering the years of his Presidency, from 1901 to 1909). Logically enough, the present volume takes us from 1910 through his death in 1919 and his legacy thereafter. I very much enjoyed the first two books of this series, and very much enjoyed this last volume; Theodore Roosevelt has been somewhat eclipsed by his fifth cousin by blood and nephew by marriage Franklin D. Roosevelt, but there is a reason why he is the fourth President on Mount Rushmore.
Having left the Presidency in the hands of his hand-picked successor William H. Taft, Roosevelt characteristically began his Life After the Presidency with a safari in Africa. In the nine years of life remaining to him, he went on an exploring expedition in South America, started the Progressive Party (a breakaway Republican party) and ran for President in 1912, lived through an assassination attempt, made innumerable speeches, wrote innumerable letters, and wrote about forty full-length books. Additionally, he served as a gadfly to first President Taft (whom Roosevelt felt had not adequately maintained various reforms put in place by Roosevelt) and then President Woodrow Wilson, who was elected in 1912. To tell more of the book would spoil the experience of reading the biography; but I do want to advise any potential readers to keep track of the footnotes to the book as they read, as they are fully as interesting as the book itself.
Roosevelt was a politician, conservationist, naturalist, author, and soldier, and the first American to win a Nobel Prize (the Peace Prize in 1906). A true polymath, he was one of the greatest Presidents, and I feel enriched by having read this last volume of his Biography by Edmund Morris.(less)
When someone becomes an outstanding success, is it a result of his or her innate talents? In this book the author makes a very good case that luck, ha...moreWhen someone becomes an outstanding success, is it a result of his or her innate talents? In this book the author makes a very good case that luck, hard work, social class, and the lessons learned by one's ancestors and passed down is what produces success. Richard and I very much enjoyed listening to this book while driving down the interstate highways.
In several engaging stories, the author explains how generation, family, culture, and class explain why most Canadian hockey players have birthdays on or shortly after (but not before) January 1st, why Asians are so good at math, and how The Beatles and Bill Gates reached the top.
The secrets of success are varied, but behind every superstar Outlier is a web of opportunity, so that despite the myth of the self-made man, no one makes it to the top without a lot of purposeful help and lucky opportunities.(less)
I have always liked Caleb Carr’s books (both fiction and nonfiction), and I love Sherlock Holmes stuff, and Richard is of the same mind as me on Carr ...moreI have always liked Caleb Carr’s books (both fiction and nonfiction), and I love Sherlock Holmes stuff, and Richard is of the same mind as me on Carr and Holmes. So when Richard found this unabridged audiobook, we both decided that it would be good to listen to on our vacation, and so it was; we both enjoyed it immensely.
All good Sherlockania is in the voice of Doctor Watson, and so this book is; the book starts in Baker Street, with a crytic telegram from Holmes’ older brother Mycroft, demanding the presence of Sherlock Holmes in Scotland at Holyrood Castle in Edinburgh, where the Queen is in residence. Holyrood is the site of the murder of the secretary of Mary Queen of Scots, one David Rizzio, in 1566. Two deaths have taken place, in connection with the proposed renovation of the West Tower (where the murder took place), and Mycroft is concerned that Continental spices might be at work.
Holmes and Watson thus head for Scotland, and are immediately plunged into a scene of deception, ghosts, and secret passages. In short, this book is a marvelous imitation of Sir Arthur Conon Doyle, down to Watson’s tendency to be a bit florid with his language at times.
This was a great book to be listening to on our vacation, and a worthy addition to the faux Sherlock Holmes canon.
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This is the book we will be discussing at tonight’s Third Tuesday Book Club Meeting, and I am most happy to have finished it today, in time to do my R...moreThis is the book we will be discussing at tonight’s Third Tuesday Book Club Meeting, and I am most happy to have finished it today, in time to do my Review of said book. It starts exactly where the second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire, left off; and so reading that book is a prerequisite for reading this one, and really one should read the first book in the trilogy, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, before all of them. Having said that, this book is a stunning ending to the best spy and murder mystery book series translated from the Swedish that I have ever read. That is not to sell it short; it is a great book, and a great series, and I lament the death of the author of a heart attack in 2004, before the publication of this trilogy.
Lisbeth Salander (aka The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) is in the intensive care unit of a Swedish hospital Also in the hospital is Zalachenko, who many years ago was a Russian agent who defected to the Swedes and was for the next twenty or thirty years “handled” by a super-secret cadre known as “the Section” within SÄPO, the Swedish Security Service. Salander and Zalachenko are in the hospital because of each other (in events that happened at the end of the second book in the series), and she is soon placed under lock and key at the hospital, to be transferred to a prison to await charges of attempted murder and various kinds of mayhem.
While Salander lies in the hospital, the Section is plotting to have her eventually declared hopelessly mad and to have her permanently institutionalized; they cannot afford to have their involvement in her life because of the handling of Zalachenko exposed. Mikael Blomkvist, the investigative journalist and co-owner of the monthly magazine Millennium and who has had dealings with Salander in the previous two books, spearheads a group of people who do not think that Salander is a dangerous paranoid schizophrenic Lesbian Satanist, but who instead think that there has been gross mismanagement by forces in the mysterious Section in the path that Salander’s life has taken nearly all her life.
This book contains wheels within wheels, spying, counter-spying, sex, revenge, murder, and unpronounceable Swedish names; in short, it’s a dandy finish to the series, and I will enjoy discussing the book tonight at my book club.
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