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April 17
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Croaker
is currently reading:
The Pillars of the Earth (Paperback)
by Ken Follett
bookshelves:
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my rating:
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Croaker
gave
to:
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World (Hardcover)
by Steven Johnson
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read in April, 2008
Croaker said:
"On August 28, 1854, working-class Londoner Sarah Lewis emptied a bucket of waste water into the cesspool of her squalid apartment building and triggered the deadliest outbreak of cholera in the city's history. A Victorian city with more than 2 milli...more
On August 28, 1854, working-class Londoner Sarah Lewis emptied a bucket of waste water into the cesspool of her squalid apartment building and triggered the deadliest outbreak of cholera in the city's history. A Victorian city with more than 2 million people packed into a ten-mile circumference. This is the story of two men: Dr. John Snow who pioneered the use of ether as an anesthetic in the United Kingdom, and on a personal note, mentions the first medical use of ether by Dr. William Morton; and the Reverend Henry Whitehead, an Oxford-educated young man whose Anglican calling did nothing to abate his fondness for London taverns.
The book begins with a description of London as a city of scavengers: bone-pickers, rag-gatherers, pure-finders, dredgermen, mud-larks, sewer-hunters, dustmen, night-soil men, bunters, toshers and shoremen. Against this backdrop of vile and ghastly smells, and in the face of a horrifying epidemic, Snow posited the then radical theory that cholera was spread through contaminated water rather than through miasma, or smells in the air. Against considerable resistance from the medical and bureaucratic establishment, Snow persisted and, with hard work and groundbreaking research, helped to bring about a fundamental change in our understanding of disease and its spread. Johnson weaves in overlapping ideas about the growth of civilization, the organization of cities, and evolution to thrilling effect.
This is a multifaceted book incorporating a detective story, an introduction to statistics (math), and a personal history. The Ghost Map is a book that, like the work of Jared Diamond, presents both vivid history and a powerful and provocative explanation of what it means for the world we live in. Unlike Jared Diamond however, Steve Johnson does not load the facts to reach the objective that Diamond would have us believe. From Snow's discovery of patient zero to Johnson's compelling argument for and celebration of cities, this makes for an illuminating and satisfying read. It is not a book for the squeamish however; a vivid description of death from cholera is graphically and terrifyingly detailed.
As interesting as the main body of the book is, Johnson ends with an Epilogue, which I believe was probably written well after he finished the telling of Dr. Snow’s story. If, for no other reason, read that chapter, but don’t expect to sleep well again. And when you read a newspaper article about a poultry worker dying in Thailand, think about what would happen if H5N1 were to undergo a single transgenic shift. Now, try to go back to sleep.
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February 29
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Croaker
gave
to:
Stardust (P.S.)
by Neil Gaiman (Goodreads author!)
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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recommended to Croaker by:
Sick Monkey
recommended for: Everyone
read in February, 2008
Croaker said:
"Stardust
Neil Gaiman
This is a fairy (or rather Faerie) tale in the best traditions of the Mother Goose, The Brothers Grimm and JRR Tolkien, only better written. His writing mimics Hemingway in brevity and word use, which is no small feat, and t...more
Stardust
Neil Gaiman
This is a fairy (or rather Faerie) tale in the best traditions of the Mother Goose, The Brothers Grimm and JRR Tolkien, only better written. His writing mimics Hemingway in brevity and word use, which is no small feat, and the pictures he paints are no less real than describing a Cuban man in a small boat being pulled into the Gulf Stream by a huge marlin.
Consider the things necessary for the complete voyage into Faerie: a wall separating the known from the unknown, with access provided only during a fair held every nine years; a young boy with one pointed ear, born to a union of a human and something else; an unfulfillable promise made in the moments of undying love trothed to a young woman; a set of extraordinary circumstances with the chance to catch a falling star, and, yes, even a unicorn.
If you decide to take the journey into Faerie, it must be done in the same fashion as, I imagine, it was written, with no thought about how is that possible. Read the story with your mind open to any and all possibilities, and don’t worry about the extraordinary circumstances which tie everything together. Read it like you were read Mother Goose. If you saw the movie, I am sorry because the pictures in your mind are much better, and they are yours alone. The real magic is in the words used to paint those pictures of the journey through a world that becomes real and one you are sorry to leave.
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February 18
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Croaker
gave
to:
God's Little Acre (Paperback)
by Erskine Caldwell
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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recommended to Croaker by:
No one
recommended for: No one
read in February, 2008
Croaker said:
"God’s Little Acre
Why do I read the books I do? I look for prize winners (Pulitzer, Booker, etc.) and notable books (New York Times, E-Lists and Book lists), or publisher (Oxford Press, University of Chicago Press). If someone (except Oprah...more
God’s Little Acre
Why do I read the books I do? I look for prize winners (Pulitzer, Booker, etc.) and notable books (New York Times, E-Lists and Book lists), or publisher (Oxford Press, University of Chicago Press). If someone (except Oprah) makes a list of ‘notable’ books to be read, I usually believe it. Reputation also is a factor in what I read. Erskine Caldwell is an author with a reputation (Tobacco Road) – he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1984, and by the time he died his books had sold over eighty million copies. I don’t necessarily base my decisions on the number of book sold – after all Barbara Cortland and Victoria Holt have probably sold more books than the Bible. But, his is a name that I thought was associated with good literature.
The book was published in 1933, the Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939. If the Grapes of Wrath had been published first, I would have said that Caldwell wrote a book based on the Grapes set in Georgia. Perhaps Steinbeck based the Grapes on Caldwell’s book, but it is harder for me to believe. Steinbeck uses language to paint a graphic picture, while Caldwell seems to use graphic sexuality as shock value to entice people to read his books. It may be that the book realistically portrays the poor whites in the early 1930s; I don’t know. It is difficult to believe that the sexual brutality as described in the book was a common thread of the daily life; perhaps it wasn’t, but only a part of the Walden family. The portrayal of the southern family life is degrading to everyone (whites and blacks) living in Georgia at that time.
There is no doubt that existence was more hand to mouth. Dreams of an easy existence seem to be more prevalent in the south; maybe that is prejudice on my part. The family of Ty Ty Waldon includes three boys (Shaw, Buck and Jim Leslie) and two girls (Rosamond and Darling Jill); Buck is married to Griselda, and Will Thompson is married to Rosamond. Will Thompson is a ‘lint-head’ (cotton-mill worker in the valley). Jim Leslie has left the family farm and moved to the ‘hill’ where he has married into a rich mill-owner family. There is inference that Jim Leslie’s wife is sick, perhaps with a sexually-transmitted decease.
Ty Ty Waldon is the father and leader of the family. Ty Ty is truly a patriarchial figure, which the boys seem to accept, while they don’t always obey. The family has two black workers and their wives who live off the same land as the Waldons. The only other character in book is Pluto, the opposite of the other males in the story. He is grossly over weight and is lazy. He is running for sheriff, and he is constantly complaining that he needs to be out ‘counting votes’, while hanging around Darling Jill. He seems to accept her constant sexual adventures. Ty Ty is obsessed with finding gold on his property. Over fifteen years, he has dug up most of his farm in search of gold, with holes everywhere. The story seems to revolve around the search for gold and the complex sexual entanglements of the family, at times incestuous.
The title of the book seems a little contrived. Ty Ty sets aside an acre of his farm, the proceeds of which are to be given to God. Of course, the search for gold displaces the meager attempts at growing cotton and Ty Ty has no difficulty in moving the acre to another part of the farm when he feels so inclined. The dichotomy between their unquestioned belief in God and their acceptance of incest and random sexual couplings seems to go unquestioned. Early in the story, Ty Ty, who claims he is scientific in his approach to digging for gold, kidnaps an albino (Dave), who is supposed to be good luck and know where to dig. The last you really hear about Dave is when he and Darling Jill are ‘wrestling around’ in the dark under a tree with most of the family (including her father) watching until Griselda makes them go in the house.
The repetitive style of Caldwell may be effective in short doses, but I feel he takes it too far. His narrative of how attractive Griselda is, how much of a woman she is and the feelings she instills in him and by inference all men, is repeated to every man he meets. His repeated telling of watching Griselda undress and bathe, and her how her proud breasts just stand right up, and the things it makes a man want to do, makes its point, and perhaps exemplifies how this man thought, but does it exemplify all the men of the South during that period? I doubt it. All the men we meet in the book are influenced by his retelling of how Griselda looks, even his son Jim Leslie. Ultimately, Ty Ty’s prodding of Jim Leslie about the body of Griselda and the things if makes a man want to do, ends with Jim Leslie’s murder by her husband, Buck.
The lack of remorse about their acts seems to be entirely absent, including the women. In fact, Darling Jill seems to condone the actions of Will Thompson when he takes Griselda (in front of his wife Rosamond), by stating that Will Thompson is a ‘real’ man. Early in the story, Darling Jill, Griselda, Pluto travel to the mill-town of Horse Creek Valley to ask Will and by inference his wife Rosamond, to travel back with them to the homestead to help dig. The narrative has them staying over night in the house of Will and Rosamond. When Rosamond goes to the store early the next morning, Darling Jill gets into the bed of Will and Rosamond. Rosamond comes home and catches them. She beats them both with a hair brush, but then she and Darling Jill console each when Will leaves the house. Shortly thereafter, Will is killed when he and the other men and women of the valley storm the mill to ‘turn on the power’, believing this will allow them to return to work. They all return to the homestead after Will’s funeral to play out the final scenes of the book with Buck killing Jim Leslie, and ‘going for a walk’ over the back fence (dimly reminiscent in action only of Tom Jode leaving his mother after the killing of a camp guard and his passionate speech about socialist rights of the working man), and Ty Ty going down in their final hole adjacent to the house and continuing to dig for the nonexistent gold.
My recommendation – In 1933 it may have had something to offer, although even then, I can’t imagine what. Today it could be read as an example of Caldwell’s writing, but other than that, skip it. There are so many other good well-written books to read, this doesn’t make my list. Today, this is a story told on day-time soaps – for the shock value only.
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