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KRESSEL'S 50 BOOKS READ IN 2017
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message 101:
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Pamela
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Oct 31, 2017 02:47AM
Good review, Kressel, for what sounds like a very interesting book.
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Pamela wrote: "Good review, Kressel, for what sounds like a very interesting book."Interesting? Well, like I said, my mind wandered quite a bit as I went through it. But important? Absolutely!
This sounds interesting. Good timing with the Bob Mueller indictments.
NOVEMBER44.
by
Lisa GenovaFinish date: November 6, 2017
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review: My mother has Alzheimer's, which is what drew me to this book. But unlike my Mom, Alice is middle-aged and has early onset. At the beginning of the book, Alice is no less than a Harvard psychology professor, so her young age and intellectual achievements make the story all the more tragic. There are positive parts of the book - her relationships with her kids and her husband, and the friendships she makes in her support group - but ultimately, the disease wins. It's a sobering message.
The book definitely gives you a clue into the confusion an Alzheimer's patient goes through. But realistic as Alice's cognitive descent is, it isn't especially beautiful or literary. That was probably not the author's goal. She indeed wanted to show us Alzheimer's from the inside, and she did a good job of it. Alice is an emotionally engaging character, and I triumphed with her and teared up for her, though I didn't actually cry. But more important than that, she gave me a sense of my Mom's future, and grim though it may be, I'm grateful for the insight.
It goes without saying you have our sympathy towards your mum's affliction.
Yes, I echo Dimitri about your mother. I saw the movie about this book. It was definitely hard hitting and sad to see someone so young with Alzheimer and sad for all of our loved ones who become afflicted.
message 108:
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Lorna, Assisting Moderator (T) - SCOTUS - Civil Rights
(last edited Nov 07, 2017 07:03PM)
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Lorna wrote: "Kressel, thank you for this most important review. I share in the sentiments of Dimitri and Helga for your mother and my thoughts are with you as I have been there. I picked up this book when I was..."I saw this at Barnes and Noble yesterday:
by Dale Bredesen (no photo)
45.
by
Joshua SafranFinish date: November 10, 2017
Genre: Memoir
Rating: A-
Review: I was enamored of the hippie trip when I was younger, right in the Reagan/Bush years when this takes place. I still tend to romanticize the people living off the grid, particularly because my son has considered becoming one of them. This book is a cautionary tale about how not to do that. There's nothing heroic about cold, rainy nights and poopholes in the ground that are swarming with flies.
The first half of the book is funny. The author mocks his mother's New Age beliefs and lifestyle with a thoroughly enjoyable irony. But in the middle, when she gets into an abusive relationship with an alcoholic ex-soldier, the book takes a dark turn. At first you're angry with her for her irresponsibility toward her son, but it doesn't take long before you're feeling sorry for her.
The happy ending is that the author grew up into a lawyer who has fought for other victims of domestic violence. He has also striven to give his daughters the comforts of a suburban life that he lacked, by which I mean indoor plumbing and heating, not a life in the lap of luxury. My Orthodox friends will be interested to know that he became a a religious Jew also, but that's more of a minor than a major theme of the book. When his mother criticized his choice as a "patriarchal, rule-centered religion," he said that it was a natural consequence of having grown up a hippie without a decent father figure. So all in all, this book goes to prove that everyone, no matter how they grow up, ends up finding fault with it and tries to do just the opposite with their own kids. So nobody should be surprised when their kids come of age and ask, "What were you thinking when you raised me like that?"
46.
by
Alec Baldwin and
Kurt Andersen Finish date: November 11, 2017
Genre: Humor
Rating: A-
Review: Since Trump's election, I've read many serious books analyzing how America got to what I, along with many others, consider a crisis of democracy, so it was refreshing to read a parody about it. The authors are two experienced Trump satirists: Alec Baldwin, who has been mimicking Trump on SNL all year, and Kurt Andersen, who has been lampooning him in print since the 1980's. A particularly funny touch to the book is that instead of the usual glowing review copy that graces the back flap, this one has an insult from the real Donald Trump about each of the two authors and how unfunny they are.
The book takes you through all the familiar events of the last year since Trump's election. The staffing changes are there, as are darker things, like Putin, North Korea, and Charlottesville, though they're not the main thing. I suppose the authors wanted to leave the serious stuff to serious analysts; they concentrate on parodying Trump's arrogance, incompetence, and growing instability. How It All Ends, which is the question on many of our minds, did not make me laugh, but perhaps it shouldn't. After all, there are many ways it could end, and some of them might not be a triumph for democracy. That being the case, if you do feel we're in crisis, and you're active in "the resistance" in some capacity, I recommend this book to you. Protecting democracy against those who would subvert it is no easy task. We might as well laugh along the way.
Kressel, any suggestions on the serious stuff by serious analysts ?
On Putin:
by
Masha GessenOn Bannon and the Mercers:
by Joshua Green (no photo)And from my to-read list:
by
Jane Mayer
I also listen to loads of podcasts. The best ones are Trumpcast, Rational Security, The Lawfare Podcast, Pod Save America, Embedded, and Stay Tuned with Preet.The best documentary films I've seen are "Get Me Roger Stone," and "Putin's Revenge."
47.
by Tim Pat Coogan (no photo)Finish date: November 20, 2017
Genre: History
Rating: B
Review: There's a phrase that appears throughout this book that sums up its thesis: "G-d sent the [potato] blight, but the British brought the famine." The book makes the case that Britain's neglect of the starving Irish was nothing short of genocide. Indeed, the descriptions of conditions in the workhouses, the place impoverished tenant farmers were evicted to en masse, reminded me of what I've read about the Nazi concentration camps with the rampant death by starvation and typhus. The only difference was that in Ireland, there were no gas chambers or crematoria.
Some relief efforts did help, but they were too small-scale, so they missed thousands of people. The Quakers receive the most credit for their non-proselytizing soup kitchens. Other Protestant sects imitated them, but with one big difference: they insisted on converting the people they served. Whatever tensions existed between Protestants and Catholics before then were surely exacerbated and gave birth to resentments that lasted generations and even played a role in what the Irish called "the Troubles" in the 20th century.
The Protestant attitude in all this was the most appalling misinterpretation of Divine Providence I've ever heard: it's G-d's will, so we need not do anything. The British leadership also embraced the political equivalent of this with a dogmatic interpretation of Adam Smith in which the death toll was seen as a market correction for poor agricultural and economic habits. Of course, this very thinking informs much of the Republican party in the U.S. today, but to me it's ironic if not shocking that Irish Americans Paul Ryan (a Catholic!) and Mitch McConnell are at the vanguard of it.
As a book, I must say it was a tough read, and not just because of the subject. The style just didn't grab me, though the fault may be mine. I fear that I had so little background in Irish history going in that I didn't get everything out of this book that the author intended. It is probably not meant to be an introduction to this subject, but more of a polemic to be read after the reader knows a fair bit about it. Since it effectively was my introduction, though, I have to say that I consider myself more informed as a result of it, but probably not enough. The book does cite other sources for readers to look into, but whether or not I make use of them remains to be seen.
DECEMBER48.
by Andrei Soldatov (no photo) and Irina Borogan (no photo)Finish date: December 3, 2017
Genre: History/Technology
Rating: A-
Review: This book records the history of surveillance technology from the Soviet era to present-day Russia, which means it was probably the most important book I read all year. Unfortunately, most of the technical parts went right over my head. I did get a few main points, though, and here they are: 1) The technology that developed after the fall of the Soviet Union has capacities that its leaders would have salivated over, so we can consider ourselves somewhat lucky, except that Putin and his inner circle are all former KGB agents; 2) Russian engineers have very little training in the liberal arts, so they're not inclined to think about the broader ethical implications of the technologies they develop; and 3) In addition to the troll farms Russia finances the peddle fake news on social media, it is far along in the development of technologies that can identify faces and voices. In the wrong hands, and Putin's surely seem like the wrong hands, this technology could be dangerously invasive.
In short, this is a depressing but important book. The one cheering point is that the human spirit may still be stronger than all the forces poised to suppress it. The Internet, as the book says, is horizontal. Use of social media organized the Orange revolution in the Ukraine, the Arab spring, and the women's march after Trump's election. We have to be vigilant that it isn't used as a weapon against us, particularly from the trolls who infiltrate just to sow discord and sabotage our goals, but used correctly, social media is still a powerful tool to promote democracy.
49.
by
Diane WolksteinFinish date: December 8, 2017
Genre: Folklore
Rating: B
Review: I've never been a particularly big fan of folklore, but I was curious about this particular collection because its stories are from Haiti. The Haitian diaspora is big in New York, so I've had Haitian friends and acquaintances since high school. It seemed time I learned more about their culture; what I've gotten mostly from our conversations is mostly about the immigrant experience. This book tells me a little more about the world they left behind.
The book is structured like a collection of short stories, but each one has a foreword in which the author/collector describes the circumstances in which she heard the story and describes a bit about the person who told it to her. Since these are well-known folk tales in Haiti, in many cases, she heard varying versions of the same story from multiple people in different settings. I often preferred the introductions to the stories themselves as they were about real life and not fantasy.
Unlike the stories I'm used to, these don't usually end with the protagonist getting a happily-ever-after. They're more often cautionary tales in which some trickster gets his comeuppance. Some of the stories are downright amoral, one was sexual, and one had scatological jokes. I didn't like those so much. Some stories had amusing anachronisms, like animals, who are often the protagonists in the stories, using the telephone. There's even a fable comparing Haiti to New York, which goes to show the effect of the diaspora on the culture.
All in all, it's a fun book, and though it may not have educated me about Haitian history or daily life all that much, it certainly whetted my appetite for more. I think next time I'll go for a memoir or some history. I still prefer fact to fiction.
50.
by Josephine LeslieFinish date: December 9, 2017
Genre: Fiction
Rating: A
Review: The TV show based on this book was in reruns when I was a kid, but I never did get the point of it even though the ghost character with his English accent and gentlemanly manner primed me for a future of Darcy-crushes. I didn't even know the book existed until a friend reviewed it here, and she intrigued me by saying that what it's really about is Mrs. Muir's growing independence. The reason I finally got around to the book, though, was to fulfill the History Book Club's Ireland challenge. The author of the book is Irish, and Captain Daniel Gregg (the ghost) seems to be Irish, though the book seems to be set in England, though it might be Ireland. All I know is that Mrs. Muir lives in an isolated house on the seaside, but the characters sometimes mention London.
Perhaps 5 stars is a bit generous for this book; it's not the stuff of the classics. But the ghost and Mrs. Muir have some amusing and deep conversations about life after death, falling in love, parenting, and the challenge of dealing with overbearing people. It was really enjoyable and absorbing; I read it in a single day. Like I said, it's not great literature, but it is deceptively deep and sometimes funny. Hollywood didn't do it justice.
51.
by
Robert Penn WarrenFinish date: December 22, 2017
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: B
Review: One of my favorite podcasts is Trumpcast, and in addition to all their excellent reporting on the Trump-Russia connection, the white backlash against Obama, and the financial conditions of rural America, they have a monthly book club. This book, which is set in the rural south of a century ago, was their November choice, and if not for them, I neither would have heard of the book nor stuck with it. The white characters are racists, the African American characters are caricatures, and the plot line is violent. The protagonist is attorney Percy Munn, and I think of him as the anti-Atticus. He gets his white client acquitted of murder by pinning the crime on a black man, and though it's not an outright frame-up job in that he really believes his client is innocent, it's still unforgivable. The character only goes downhill from there. At the outset, the association of tobacco farmers that he leads seems worthwhile in that they're taking on the corporate owners who are underpaying them, but the group gets increasingly Klan-like, riding around at night in white masks, threatening non-compliant farmers and burning their crops. The only admirable character comes late in the book: Willy Proudfit, a white man who has lived alongside Native Americans.
I'm glad I read the book if only for Trumpcast's analysis of it. It is action-packed, and many of the characters are well-drawn, but the bleak violence, though it makes its point, is just not my cup of tea.
52.
by
Stefan ZweigFinish date: December 24, 2017
Genre: Fiction
Rating: D
Review: I hardly ever give 1-star reviews because when I dislike a book, I usually just stop reading it, but I actually liked this book at the beginning. It's well-written and emotionally gripping, but eventually, the portrayal of the protagonist became completely unrealistic.
The book is written as a long letter written by a woman to the man she loves, but because he's been with so many women in his life, she doesn't expect him to know her. When she first falls in love with him, she's an adolescent, and I thought that part of the book was remarkably well done. I was amazed that a male author could capture the romantic fantasies of a young teenage girl so well. But the protagonist never loses interest in the man. She becomes so obsessed, she refuses to participate in the normal social life of a teenager, even a shy one. And it only gets worse from there. When she is 18, the man finally takes notice of her, and she gives herself to him readily. Only two types of women would do that, she observes: the inexperienced and the prostitute. So once they've become lovers, then there's not much else for the character but to become a prostitute, right? She gives her body to anybody, but her heart belongs to one man. Blech, I could throw up. In this age of #MeToo, this was one book I could really have skipped. Oh, well, at least it was short.
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However, you will start using the 2018 thread now.
Happy reading.
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The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Letter from an Unknown Woman (other topics)Night Rider (Southern Classics) (other topics)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (other topics)
The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales (other topics)
The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Stefan Zweig (other topics)Robert Penn Warren (other topics)
Josephine Leslie (other topics)
Diane Wolkstein (other topics)
Irina Borogan (other topics)
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