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JIMMY'S (from Chichester) 50 BOOKS READ IN 2015
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Jimmy wrote: "43. 
by 
Bill McKibbenFinish date: May 2015
Genre: Essays on overpopulation
Rating: A
Re..."
Very interesting review. I'm currently reading up about climate change as well, I'll have to add this to my list.
JUNE44.
by
Andy WeirFinish date: June 2015
Genre: Short story about the Big G
Rating: B
Review: It's four pages long. That means ANYONE can read it.
45.
by
Jan SteckelFinish date: June 2015
Genre: Poetry
Rating A
Review: Fascinating narrative poems. I was involved in all the stories she told. Themes ranged from human sexuality to her experiences as a pediatrician.
46.
by Ewa Chrusciel (no photo) Finish date: June 2015
Genre: Poetry
Rating: A
Review: A totally different book of poetry about smuggling and immigration and the hoopoe bird. It was flat out wonderful.
47.
by
Amy Belding BrownFinish date: June 2015
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating B:
Review: The author uses some facts from the story of Mary Rowlandson's captivity with the Nipmuc Indians to write historical fiction. I graded it as a bit more of a young adult novel. The Nipmucs named the Lake in my hometown that is considered the longest place name in North America: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.
48.
by Mary Rowlandson (no photo)Finish date: June 2015
Genre: History; captivity narrative
Rating: C
Review: Written about 1675, this is probably the most famous of the captivity narratives. It's a slog to read with the long paragraphs, Biblical quotes, and archaic language. I understand the Biblical info was added later by others. As always, the particulars of the truth of the narrative is somewhat in doubt.
Then there are the occasional lines like this one: "That night they bade me go out of the wigwam again. My mistress's papoose was sick, and it died that night, and there was one benefit in it—that there was more room."
49.
by
Robert Newton PeckFinish date: June 2015
Genre: Young Adult Literature; Biography
Rating: A
Review: The great young adult author Robert Newton Peck wrote this book about growing up in the Vermont countryside in the 1920s with his best friend Soup. There's even a one-room schoolhouse. Soup got his name by answering to his mother's call of Soup's On! Now there are over a dozen books in the Soup series now.
In one wonderful scene, Peck and his friends are out playing football. He discusses inflating a football by licking the silver needle before putting it in the football. The taste of that needle on a brisk fall day is unforgettable. I remember playing football with my friends and the taste of that silver needle. Brilliant scene.
50.
by
Witi IhimaeraFinish date: June 2015
Genre: Young Adult Literature
Rating: A
Review: Wonderful audio edition read by Jay Laga'aia. His reading of the Maori language, songs, and chants is magnificent. Also a great movie.
51.
by
Hermann HesseFinish date: June 2015
Genre: Classic literature.
Rating: B+
Review: It was a great pleasure to read Hesse once again. In college, I loved reading all of his best books. I had never read this one before. It contains three stories of varying lengths.
Story #1 is the shortest: "A Child's Heart." About a boy who sneaks into his dictatorial father's room and can't resist stealing a few figs. The result is an agonizing guilt complex until his father finds out.
Story #2 is "Klein and Wagner" about two names for the same person.
Story #3 is the title story about the final, sensual fling of an expressionist painter.
JULY52.
by
Kate DiCamilloFinish date: July 2015
Genre: Young adult literature
Rating: A
Review: Edward Tulane is a rabbit made of china. This is the perfect book for any weird kids you know. The rabbit just stares and thinks. He goes on a journey and faces the vagaries of life. I always wanted to say "vagaries of life" in a sentence with a straight face. Apparently, I just did it. Which only shows that the book was perfect for me.
53.
by
David McCulloughFinish date: July 2015
Genre: History; biography
Rating: A+
Review: A masterpiece of scholarly research. David McCullough has set a very high bar for any future biography. America was lucky to have men like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, and others at the start of our country. What a dropoff we have now with men like Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas, and Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas.
54.
by
Jodi PicoultFinish date: July 2015
Genre: Fiction
Rating: C+
Review: A murder mystery about a boy with Asperger's Syndrome. By the end, I felt somewhat let down. I also had serious questions about the references to vaccinations causing Asperger's, as well as about the portrayal of a boy with Asperger's. Picoult did her research, but is that enough?
55.
by
Claudia RankineFinish date: July 2015
Genre: Poetry; prose poems
Rating: A
Review: I was totally involved in this National Book Award finalist. I would casually ask people about Serena Williams, and all I got were negative responses. Does race have anything to do with that?
56.
by Eugene Ehrlich (no photo) Finish date: July 2015
Genre: Dictionary
Rating: B+
Review: A dictionary with the easy words eliminated. Good idea. You can actually read the whole thing, like I did. The only thing it lacks is a bit of fun along the way. Pretty straightforward definitions. The Preface had an interesting story about defining the word "door" in a 1934 dictionary. What an effort! For what purpose?
57.
by David M. Carroll (no photo)Finish date: July 2015
Genre: Nature stories; memoir
Rating: B+
Review: David Carroll won the John Burroughs medal, the highest award for nature writers, for his book Swampwalker's Journal. This book is a combination of art book, nature stories, and memoir. Didn't need as much memoir, but I loved the nature stories, mostly about turtles. I totally identified with the author because the first job I ever wanted as a boy was to be a herpetologist. I just didn't follow through. So this was a vicarious experience for me about what might have been.
Making pets of wild animals can be very destructive. That includes pet stores. Hopefully, you are not supporting the industry that encourages the capturing and often the death of our declining wildlife. Like Mr. Carroll, I learned that lesson when I was young. It takes someone to tell us to keep wild animals in the wild.
Saving land for "open space" often is as destructive as developing it. Between joggers, dog owners, snowmobilers, and just about anyone else, the end result is often the same. We need to preserve wild lands for the wildlife. They become "ecological and spiritual graveyards."
Since box turtles live on land, their habitat has been destroyed. They are also easy to catch for pets. All of the places I saw box turtles as a boy are gone.
As we watch extinction take place slowly before our eyes, do we see our own?
You read a great mix of books, Jimmy. It is always fun to read your reviews.
I always enjoy writing them. I figured I was entertaining myself. Along the way, I found out that I had some loyal followers. Go figure.
58.
by
Bill McKibbenFinish date: July 2015
Genre: Environment; economy
Rating: A
Review: The book was published in 2007, so it is interesting to see just how McKibben may have been on the right track with his opinions.
One of his main points is to show how shifting to local economies will mean less stuff but more durability.
Part I: After Growth
Quote by John Maynard Keynes: "say, two thousand years before Christ down to the beginning of the eighteenth century, there was really no great change in the standard of living of the average man in the civilized centers of the earth. Ups and downs, certainly visitations of plague, famine and war, golden intervals, but no progressive violent change."
But in 1712, something new finally happened. British inventor Thomas Newcomen developed the first practical steam engine. It could replace 500 horses walking in a circle. The industrial revolution was about to begin.
In 1776, Adam Smith noted in The Wealth of Nations that "continued increase" of "national wealth" increases wages. So "growth" became everything. It was the operative word and still is.
When Reagan became president, growth was everything for both liberals and conservatives. Limits were out. By the presidency of George W. Bush, tax cuts were used to stimulate growth. Despite the disastrous consequences, that theory still holds sway in conservative circles. And I should add to the extreme.
But McKibben points out that "growth is no longer making us happy." This may be his main theme.
Here's another fact: "Though our economy has been growing, most of us have relatively little to show for it." The income disparity between the top and the bottom is enormous. And that disparity is worse now than when McKibben wrote this book.
The liberal argument is to spread the growth around more. But McKibben believes that will not solve the problem. "Growth simply isn't enriching most of us."
He next discusses the effects of growth on climate change. And they are enormous.
We need to connect our economic policies with the environment and our own life experiences. Joy needs to be considered.
Part II: The Year of Eating Locally
Four companies slaughter 81% of American beef. Cargill controls 45% of the globe's grain trade. Archer Daniels Midland controls another 30% of the grain trade. In 15 years, Idaho potato farmers have been cut in half to less than 800. About 89% of American chickens are under contract to big companies, usually in broiler houses up to 500 feel long holding 30,000 or more chickens. The list could go on with virtually all commodities.
The "farmers" in this process live often miserable lives. Can you imagine raising chickens for Perdue? They become "Land owning serfs in an agricultural feudal system." They make a pittance.
Cheap rock lobster is often harvested by divers who show signs of neurological damage because they use ancient scuba equipment. Again, that's just one example. There are many more.
One farm in Utah has 1.5 million hogs and more sewage problems than Los Angeles. This is not true farming. Abusing the environment can be efficient in a way. Just forget about the aftereffects.
Our food system has become increasingly vulnerable to sabotage. Why hasn't it been done yet? Maybe because it's not as bloody and terrorizing as a massacre.
Half the chicken in British supermarkets is contaminated with campylobacter. Live birds are stacked in enormous towers while awaiting slaughter. They shit on each other. People want cheap food.
Ground water is running out. Places that are currently running dry: California, India, Mexico, China, Saudi Arabia. We are paying the price for the deep wells.
The fact is, however, that small farms produce more food. You can intercrop different kinds of plants. Remember that and support them.
The Cuban boycott helped Cuban farms to get small. It probably saved them.
Part 3: All for One, or One for All
Houses are now being developed to help people stay to themselves. As Margaret Thatcher said, "There are no such thing as 'society.' There are just individuals and their families." The public realm is coming under increasing attack. Selfishness rules, even in Christianity. We now have hyper-individualism
The former Soviet Union is the most toxic place on earth.
When Wal-Mart expands, all sorts of small businesses disappear. It eliminates 1 1/2 jobs for every 1 job it creates. More Wal-Marts means more poverty.
People are happier with marriage, families, friends, community. The key to change is local.
Part 4: The Wealth of Communities
Interesting, in this chapter, McKibben talks about a small radio station. When Congress "deregulated" radio and ended the "fairness doctrine," the change was dramatic. Hate radio began. And Clear Channel controlled over 1200 stations. How is this deregulation? Locals could not even get local news on the air.
In Powell, Wyoming, a red-state town, the citizens kept a Wal-Mart out and built a clothing store.
Americans are the energy-use champions of all time. we require a lot of fossil fuels. Japan leads the world in building a decentralized solar-panel energy economy.
Hyper-individualism has been spread by our tv shows. People around the world want to live like that.
Vermont has a family forest program for local lumber that preserves forests.
Part 5: The Durable Future
About 30 million Chinese people a year pour out of the countryside into the city, the greatest migration in history. They want to be like America. It's just not possible for the earth to allow that. It cannot even handle one America.
The deserts of the world are growing relentlessly.
Mexico lost 1.3 million small farmers thanks to NAFTA.
An impoverished coffee grower in Uganda gets 200 shillings for a kilo of coffee. Starbucks gets the equivalent of 5,000 shillings for one cup of coffee. All of the value items we buy at the grocery store? It's the same way.
A surprising fact: McKibben saw many protestors in China. Farmers and workers were upset about their treatment.
McKibben's hope of developing more community spirit here in the US does not fill me with the optimism he wants.
Let me finish with this disturbing bit of information: In 2003, the US led transition government of Iraq in one of the first laws adopted protected the patenting of plants and seeds, even though 97% of Iraqi farmers used seeds from local markets or grown from their own crops. This was the Bush administration cooperating with the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, and Dow Chemical. Daniel Amstutz, who oversaw agricultural reconstruction in Iraq, was a former Cargill executive. That says it all, doesn't it?
by
Adam Smith
59.
by
Hazel RowleyFinish date: July 2015
Genre: Biography; philosophers
Rating: A
Review: Sartre intended to marry his mother Anne-Marie when he grew up. When he was 11, she married again and he was devastated. The naval engineer Joseph Mancy married her. Sartre would always hate his "Uncle Jo."
Sartre's odd eye and funny way of speaking got him beaten up a few times by his classmates. He became a tough hoodlum himself. He stole money from his mother's handbag to treat the other kids. He lied about making love to a girl back home in Paris. He was tormented in adolescence about his ugliness. He decided he would seduce women with "les mots"--the words.
When Sartre met Beauvoir in college, he called her Beaver, the name stuck forever.
Sartre and Beauvoir had large audiences for their oral exams.
Beauvoir chose to be not married. She wanted to be able to have the freedom to be an atheist, have extra-marital sex, go into bars and cafes, think for herself. The downside was a life that could be lonely at times.
Sartre lost his virginity at 18 with a 30-year-old married woman. She took the initiative. He "did it with no great enthusiasm because she wasn't very pretty." That really is the story of his entire sex life, it seems to me.
Sartre did not want a monogamous relationship with Beauvoir. But Beauvoir realized that women were not the "other sex" but the "second sex." In other words, they were unequal and inferior in the view of society.
Sartre and Beauvoir were visibly repelled by pregnant women. And Sartre thought babies "smelled like piss." Neither wanted to have babies.
Beauvoir felt that her "physical appetites were greater than [she} wanted them to be."
Beauvoir felt that it was "bad faith" to look to another, whether human or god, for salvation. We are "free" and must accept that. But their belief in an almost absolute individual freedom reached an almost absurd level, seeming to not take into account all of the factors that limit freedom.
They make a lifelong pact to not marry.
I loved Sartre's teaching methods. No snobbery. Throwing ideas around like talking to friends. All subjects interested him. He even boxed with them.
He became interested in phenomenology, talking about things.
Sartre suggested to Wanda, sister of Sartre's mistress Olga, once that they play roles while walking. She would be the mother and he would be her daughter. She was a 20-year-old virgin and appalled when 56-year-old Sartre planted a kiss on her lips in a cab. She dreaded bumping into him.
Olga had a back-alley abortion. Both Sartre and Beauvoir had abortionist characters based on this incident in their writing.
Some in the Communist resistance movement did not trust Sartre because he read Heidegger, a Nazi supporter.
Sartre had a lack of "priapic drive." He said, "I was more a masturbator than a copulator of women." He was more into "embracing, caressing, and kissing a body all over." He "often made love, but without very great pleasure. Just a little pleasure at the end, but pretty feeble."
Sartre called it "medieval sadism" to shave the hair of women who slept with Germans.
Sartre had strained relations with both Arthur Koestler and Albert Camus. They could not understand him being an apologist for Stalinism. Today I see the same type of feelings on the left for Islamism.
Beauvoir had an affair with author Nelson Algren but turned down his request to marry him.
Sartre was supportive of a Jewish homeland.
Sartre took 4 tablets of corydrane, a stimulant, to become a "work machine." He smoked 2 packs of cigarettes and drank vast quantities of coffee and tea. In the evening he drank half a bottle of whiskey and took 4 or 5 sleeping pills. He focused on politics rather than literature. He became anxious about the utter irrelevance of what he was doing. He could write for hours at a stretch under the influence of the drug.
One question I always have: How does the man considered to be the father of existentialism become a defender of Stalinism? Camus, on the other hand, denounced Stalinist totalitarianism and covertly attacked Sartre for defending it. Camus saw the "revolutionary" as authoritarian characters who invariably rationalized killing. How still true that is today!! Camus argued that violence is always unjustifiable, even as a means to an end. Camus accused Sartre of signing up for "servitude and submission." I agree with him. Neither Sartre nor Beauvoir ever spoke to Camus again. What idiots!!
Beauvoir became worried about Sartre. He took no exercise, ate fatty foods. Worst of all he crunched as many as 20 corydrane tablets a day. He came close to a nervous breakdown.
Sartre never publicly criticized the USSR for the invasion of Hungary. For shame!!
For many years he worked on books about Genet and then Flaubert. What a waste in my view! His book The Words would get him the Nobel prize.
Nelson made not a single cent for The Man with the Golden Arm. And anti-communist censors drastically cut it.
Camus died in a car accident on January 4, 1960. He was 46. Sartre finally says some positive things, a little late. He referred to him as "probably the last good friend I had." Is this showing good faith? Not in my book!!
Sartre was told by Russians not to accept the Nobel because the Nobel committee had previously picked Boris Pasternak to embarrass the USSR. He would not accept the award. Camus had already won 5 years earlier. In my view, Sartre is once again showing "bad faith."
Joseph Brodsky, a young Jewish poet, was put on trial in the USSR. Finally Sartre makes an intervention.
Sartre's last words to Beauvoir were, "I love you very much, my dear Beaver." About 50,000 people thronged the streets for his coffin. Beauvoir died 6 years later. Her ashes buried beside Sartre's in Montparnasse Cemetery.
Something went wrong with your book cover citation....a slip of the finger I think.
by
Nelson Algren
AUGUST60.
by
Jon RonsonFinish date: August 2015
Genre: Non-fiction; psychopaths.
Rating: B+
Review: The book starts off with an elaborate hoax played on some top scientists. It leads the author Jon Ronson to study psycopaths. I can't help but wonder if the author's name is a hoax. Shouldn't it be Ron Jonson, not Jon Ronson? I want to see his birth certificate.
The subtitle says a lot: "A Journey Through the Madness Industry." The author seeks out the weirdest stories he can find.
Some of the questions he asks are still with me. Is my overanxious brain more powerful than my rationality? Do psychopaths make the world go round? Is madness everywhere? Could it be possible that society is not rational? Is it built on insanity?
One illness that fascinates me is prosopagnosia: the inability to recognize faces. Imagine passing people you know and not recognizing them.
Here is the psycopath test of behaviors:
1. Glibness/superficial charm.
2. Grandiose sense of self-worth.
3. Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom.
4. Pathological lying.
5. Conning/manipulative.
6. Lack of remorse or guilt.
7. Shallow affect.
8. Callous/lack of empathy.
9. Parasitic lifestyle.
10. Poor behavioral controls.
11. Promiscuous sexual behavior.
12. Early behavior problems.
13. Lack of realistic long-term goals.
14. Impulsivity.
15. Irresponsibility.
16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions.
17. Many short-term marital relationships.
18. Juvenile delinquency.
19. Revocation of conditional release.
20. Criminal versatility.
Why do we have war, savage economic equality, corporate cruelty? Answer: psychopaths. We aren't all good people trying to do good.
There are people who get turned on by killing. That's painfully obvious.
Madness was a gold rush for drug companies.
Rachel North was on a subway in London in July 2005 when it blew up with Islamic extremists responsible. In her carriage, 26 people died. There were a total of 4 bombs that day: 3 on subways or tubes and one on a bus. It was the UK's 7/7. Suddenly, the conspiracy theorists became involved. Muslims wouldn't do something like this. Rachel started a blog. People called it a "power surge." Not a bomb. They doubted Rachel, even her existence. To the crackpots, it was an "inside job." They called everything fake, even the bus. All actors and stuntmen. When Rachel wrote more on her blog, the crazies concluded she couldn't possibly do that on her own.
One of the leaders was David Shayler. He is a crazy to top all crazies. He believed 9/11 was done with holograms. It was really an American missile with a hologram plane. Many people believe him. Really. They still do. Ronson was accused by Shayler of being a racist for blaming Muslims. Ronson told him to "fuck off" on British radio. I second that. But damn it is so frustrating.
61.
by
Maxine KuminFinish date: August 2015
Genre: Poetry
Rating: A
Review: One of the great NH poets. Poetry for everyone, unless you are squeamish about animal rights.
62.
by
Donald HallFinish date: August 2015
Genre: Poetry; death of Jane Kenyon
Rating: A
Review: Mr. Hall tells the story of his wife Jane Kenyon dying of cancer. Heartbreaking shit.
Mod
Jimmy (from Chichester), here is your new thread in 2015. Happy reading in the new year.
Our Required Format:
JANUARY
1.
by
Winston S. ChurchillFinish date: January 2015
Genre: (whatever genre the book happens to be)
Rating: A
Review: You can add text from a review you have written but no links to any review elsewhere even goodreads. And that is about it. Just make sure to number consecutively and just add the months.
Mod
Jimmy....I apologize for not catching the format errors mentioned by Bentley and causing you extra work
No problem, Jill. I'm glad you were focusing on the reviews.
63.
by
Hank HanegraaffFinish date: August 2015
Genre: Pseudo-science
Rating: F
Review: We don't look like our human ancestors, so evolution must be wrong. Oh, and you are all sinful and evil. And evolution causes men to turn gay. And women to get abortions. Belongs on any good humor shelf. Hanegraaff peddles this stuff on the radio as well.
64.
by
Stephen KingFinish date: August 2015
Genre: Mystery
Rating: A
Review: This audio cd was read by Jeffrey DeMunn. He was absolutely terrific capturing the Maine accents. Just a joy to listen to. Okay, I know, for those of you who read the book and were disappointed at the lack of an apparent resolution, well, I don't care.
65.
by
Charles BaudelaireFinish date: August 2015
Genre: Poetry; French
Rating: C
Review: The original book in 1845 was going to be The Lesbians by Baudelaire-Dufays, a pen name. Dufays was his mother's name. He was 24 at the time. By 1848, the title was going to be Limbo. The final title came in 1855. The Lesbians title may have just meant "women of Lesbos." Proust once wondered why Baudelaire would want that title since it didn't fit the book. There are three lesbian poems. He may have thought of them as soul-mates because they were damned, yet filled with passion. The critic Pierre Emmanuel refers to this passion as a sought-for hell. Lesbians are the embodiments of lust and desire. But fulfillment is impossible. Baudelaire was the first 19th century author to portray Sappho as a lesbian. In a sense, his shift in titles replaced lesbians with prostitutes, figures like lesbians who may not find satisfaction with men. It may also have been a challenge to the mariolatry of the time seeking to make the Virgin Mary the feminine ideal. Baudelaire endows women with sexual desires. In the title change, Baudelaire may have been shifting from lesbians to prostitutes as his representative female figures.
The word spleen was much in vogue in Baudelaire's day. It was used as a term for a state of depression or youthful world-weariness. Four of his poems have that word in the title.
The book was seized by police. Baudelaire's lawyer argued the book must be judged as a whole, that the author presented evil as something to be hated. Some changes had to be made because of the court's guilty verdict. That may be part of the problem with the poems. I wish he had written underground pornography. It is just too tame by today's standards.
For example, here is a translation of a poem about a dead body. A journalist complained that Baudelaire created "carcass literature."
A Carcass
My love, do you recall the object which we saw,
That fair, sweet, summer morn!
At a turn in the path a foul carcass
On a gravel strewn bed,
Its legs raised in the air, like a lustful woman,
Burning and dripping with poisons,
Displayed in a shameless, nonchalant way
Its belly, swollen with gases.
The sun shone down upon that putrescence,
As if to roast it to a turn,
And to give back a hundredfold to great Nature
The elements she had combined;
And the sky was watching that superb cadaver
Blossom like a flower.
So frightful was the stench that you believed
You'd faint away upon the grass.
The blow-flies were buzzing round that putrid belly,
From which came forth black battalions
Of maggots, which oozed out like a heavy liquid
All along those living tatters.
All this was descending and rising like a wave,
Or poured out with a crackling sound;
One would have said the body, swollen with a vague breath,
Lived by multiplication.
And this world gave forth singular music,
Like running water or the wind,
Or the grain that winnowers with a rhythmic motion
Shake in their winnowing baskets.
The forms disappeared and were no more than a dream,
A sketch that slowly falls
Upon the forgotten canvas, that the artist
Completes from memory alone.
Crouched behind the boulders, an anxious dog
Watched us with angry eye,
Waiting for the moment to take back from the carcass
The morsel he had left.
— And yet you will be like this corruption,
Like this horrible infection,
Star of my eyes, sunlight of my being,
You, my angel and my passion!
Yes! thus will you be, queen of the Graces,
After the last sacraments,
When you go beneath grass and luxuriant flowers,
To molder among the bones of the dead.
Then, O my beauty! say to the worms who will
Devour you with kisses,
That I have kept the form and the divine essence
Of my decomposed love!
— William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)
Poems 22 to 39 are the cycle of the "Black Venus," a mulato named Jeanne Duval, a sometime prostitute that Charles lived with on and off through much of his adult life. Poems 40 to 48 are for the "White Venus," Apollonie Sabatier, a celebrated beauty whose salon was a meeting place for artists and writers. Poems 49 to 57 are for the "Green-eyed Venus," an actress named Marie Daubrun, an actress Baudelaire pursued briefly.
Baudelaire is considered a modern poet because he used dissonant images and was a poet of the city. He also repudiated sentimental themes. Victor Hugo wrote about prostitutes, but they would have a heart of gold. Baudelaire tried to be more realistic.
Still I can't help but feel this poetry could have used fewer flowers and more evil. I was glad to be finished with it. And would have no interest in reading it again.
66.
by
Larry McMurtryFinish date: August 2015
Genre: Historical fiction; Old West
Rating: A
Review: Now that I have a new car with an actual cd player, I can drive around not concentrating and missing all my exits. But it's all good because I get to listen to tapes like this one read by Alfred Molina who handles several characters, male and female, of different ethnic groups with such ease. Terrific job by Molina. Any way, I haven't hit any pedestrians yet. That's a good thing, right?
I love McMurtry stories. His sex and violence are over the top, so he's not for everyone. I always imagine myself around a campfire asking Larry to tell me a story about the Old West. He does it, and I go for it in a big way. Always.
Mod
Hopefully, you are missing the pedestrians as well.
SEPTEMBER67.
by
Alan BrennertFinish date: September 2015
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: B
Review:: Historical fiction about the treatment of people with Hansen's disease on Hawai'i from 1891 through WWII. A bit like watching a good Lifetime movie. I would have preferred the movie. It would have taken less time. I was anxious to get to the end so I could look up some of the history.
I might suggest this book, Jimmy. It tells the story of the last "leper colony" in the continental United States located in Carville, Louisiana. It closed in 1999. A very poignant book.
by Marcia Gaudet(no photo)
68.
by
Richard BlancoFinish date: September 2015
Genre: Autobiographical essay
Rating: B-
Review: Richard Blanco describes the process of writing his poem for President Obama's inaugural address. Writing such a poem is a virtually impossible task. Has there ever been a good one? Add to that, Blanco was the first gay man, the first Hispanic, the first immigrant to do such a task. And . . . Oh, horror of horrors! . . . he spoke Spanish openly in this country. The book was informative in parts.
69.
by
Dylan EvansFinish date: September 2015
Genre: Science
Rating: A
Review: An accessible guide for the average intelligent reader. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
"My dear, let us hope it is not true; but, if it is true, let us hope it will not become generally known."--the Bishop of Birmingham's wife.
"universal acid" and "Darwin's dangerous idea"--Daniel C. Dennett's descriptions of evolution.
"I have no need for that hypothesis."--Pierre Simon de Laplace (1749-1827) after being asked, What part does God play in your universe?
"All attempts to answer that question before 1859 are worthless and . . . we will be better off if we ignore them completely."--George Gaylord Simpson after being asked, What is Man?
"It often involves the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact."--Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95) speaking about scientific progress.
70.
by
Loung UngFinish date: September 2015
Genre: History; Cambodian genocide
Rating: A
Review: Loung Ung is now a national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine Free World, a program of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. In this book, she tells of her story of escape from the horrors of the Khmer Rouge. In just a matter of a few years, the Cambodian communists managed to kill off about three million of their own people by either direct or indirect means. Ung was five years old when the story began. Her father was a government official. The entire city of Phnom Penh was forcibly driven out. And that includes every hospital patient, every old and young person. The Angkars as they called themselves hated anyone who was educated, urban, western. Those people, if they could be found, would be killed often immediately.
I apologize for not keeping up with my thread. I did read 100 books but found it time consuming to post again here and make the correct footnotes as well. I intend to read 100 books a year for the rest of my life.
No need to apologize, Jimmy. This thread is for your enjoyment and that of others who like to read your reviews.Do you want to be included on the 2016 thread?
Jill wrote: "No need to apologize, Jimmy. This thread is for your enjoyment and that of others who like to read your reviews.Do you want to be included on the 2016 thread?"
I think not, Jill, but thank you for asking.
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Thanks for the comment, Bentley. I'm almost 70 now, so I want to read as much as I can before I check out. Just writing Goodreads reviews alone takes a lot of time. Then when I come here, it was doubling my effort. Often I forgot the steps to follow. I did enjoy my time here, and I think you run a great group. Maybe next year, I will try again. I'll keep it in mind.
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The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (other topics)Introducing Evolution: A Graphic Guide (other topics)
For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey (other topics)
Carville: Remembering Leprosy in America (other topics)
Moloka'i (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Loung Ung (other topics)Dylan Evans (other topics)
Richard Blanco (other topics)
Marcia G. Gaudet (other topics)
Alan Brennert (other topics)
More...
Finish date: May 2015
Genre: Essays on overpopulation
Rating: A
Review: Bill McKibben is the head of 350.org and a hero of mine. In this book, he discusses one-child families and the problem of overpopulation.
There are many prejudices against only children. Number one is that they are "spoiled." In one essay, the author discusses this and other wrongful ideas.
He is in no way interested in a Chinese style forced one-child policy.
The world has about 7 billion people now. It may peak out at about 11 billion. A sustainable number would be less than 3 billion. Good luck reaching that figure. We add a New York City every month, a Mexico every year, and an India every decade. This can't go on.
Odd fact: an iceberg lettuce head is 95% water, 50 calories of energy, but takes 400 calories of energy to grow it and 1,800 calories of energy to ship it east.
New technology in fishing has decreased the number of fish available. The math is not looking good to say the least.
Insurance companies are now taking climate change seriously. They have to foot the bills for these disasters.
At symposiums now, scientists are admitting that it is no longer about future change. The world has already been transformed. We actually increase wind speeds by cutting down trees and increasing deserts.
Coastal waters and estuaries are blooming with toxic algae. The EPA as I write this is trying to do something about this problem. It will need some controls over cattle. But you can guess who is opposed. Polluters hide under the shield of "freedom."
Carbon dioxide is not pollution, carbon monoxide is. But CO2 is a culprit in global warming. We have cleaned up a lot of lead and other pollutants. The skies seem better. Don't be fooled. They are not.
If we wait 20 years to stop this, we will lose. By that point, we might as well not even try.
Don't let other countries fool you. They are breaking their pledges about cutting CO2 emissions.
We need to change our attitude about what the American Dream means.
Mobil Oil buys ads to tell "its side" of the story. As usual, the wording is deceiving.
Coal produces the most CO2. China has most of the world's coal. Hard to imagine them cutting back enough. An Exxon executive went there and urged the Chinese not to worry: the world's temperature often changes, he said, citing the Ice Age.
There will be "environmental refugees" to deal with because of climate change once it reaches full effect.
McKibben takes on the issue of immigration head on. It cannot last forever. Problems at the source, such as overpopulation, must be dealt with.
Lifeboat ethics don't work if you live on a yacht. We have to stop with all the stuff. About 3 billion people lack proper sanitation. Human wastes kill far more people than nuclear wastes.
One journalist studying water problems could not talk openly about too many people without having the Catholic church and every other group on the left or right complaining.
Sex education works. It helps to cut unwanted teenage birth rates.
Millions of acres of farmland are lost for good because of overpopulation. How do they get fed? We lose topsoil 18 times faster than we replace it.
McKibben describes his vasectomy and recommends other men follow suit.
World religions urge large families. The Bible begins with "be fruitful and multiply." It was St. Augustine who affected the Catholic church's stand. He was once a Manichaen and their stand on sex was decidedly negative. Augustine looked at birth control as wrong. If his contemporaries had followed St. John Chrysostom instead, we might have a different world view. In 1930, Pope Pius XI banned all artificial contraception in reaction to a Protestant stand. If only Catholics would publicly fight back and get this changed.
In Toni Morrison's novel Sula, the main character says, "I don't want to make somebody else. I want to make myself."
We can no longer live in this unsustainable fashion. The planet depends on us changing.