The History Book Club discussion

Helga, this is your thread for 2018. I have included the link to the required format thread and an example. If you had a 2017 thread - it will be archived so when you get the opportunity move over your completed books and formats to the 2018 thread - but we will allow time for you to do that.

Please follow the standard required format below - I hope you enjoy your reading in 2018. Here is also a link for assistance with the required guidelines:

Link:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Our Required Format:

JANUARY

1. by Winston S. Churchill
Finish date: January 2018
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.

IMPORTANT - THE REVIEW SHOULD BE SHORT AND SWEET - THERE ARE NO LINKS OF ANY KIND IN THE BODY OF THE REVIEW ALLOWED. NONE. DO NOT REFER TO ANY OTHER BOOK IN YOUR BRIEF REVIEW. THE ONLY BOOK CITED IN YOUR REVIEW IS THE ONE YOU ARE REVIEWING - NO OTHERS. ALL LINKS TO OTHER THREADS OR REVIEWS ARE DELETED IMMEDIATELY - THERE WILL BE NO WARNING. WE CONSIDER THIS SELF PROMOTION AND IT IS NOT ALLOWED AND IS IN VIOLATION OF OUR RULES AND GUIDELINES.

JANUARY

1. by Masha Gessen
Finish date: January 5, 2018
Genre: Biography/Russian Politics
Rating: A
Review: This book was a semi-biography of Vladimir Putin a KGB operative and his rise to power. I found it quite chilling to read about his years of ascendancy as a young thug growing up to his rise as the president of Russia and his corrupt government. It took 5 years for the USSR to dismantle after Mikhail Gorbachev lost power. It was due to the protests of the people that the USSR toppled from power and then the fall of Yeltsin for Putin to come into power handpicked by the Kremlin. We see Russia as unfree and Putin as a warmonger and run by a corporate corrupt group. Putin seemed to be the perfect choice for the oligarchy and the perfect person to shape and design the new Russia according to their whims. Putin’s popularity soared in the early days and it seemed to the world that Russia was becoming a progressive country. However, he soon seized control of the media, exiled critics and political rivals and rigged the electoral process by smashing it. The political power was in the hands of his cronies and they seized the assets of the rich for the state and most of it into the personal hands of Putin who became a very wealthy man. Putin amassed a wealth of more than 40 billion. He is seen as being very greedy and described as having pleonexia, an extreme greed for wealth or material possessions and desire to own what belongs to others. He turned the country into a supersized model of the KGB. Putin’s intent and purpose was to turn Russia into a closed system, a government not accountable to the people, an authoritarian tyrannical government.

Masha Gessen, a journalist who lived in Russia experienced this history firsthand. It was shocking to me from reading this account, how little our American news reported the actual accounts of what was happening in Russia. It was reported that Russia was slowly gaining their democracy. From this book, we learned that the people in Russia protested in large numbers, as high as 150,000 and were in 99 cities, and not a tiny liberal minority. Gessen states that there is some hope in the future with now more protests to rise and resist in the hopes for democracy in Russia one day as Putin can’t rule forever though he is up for another 6 year term after this one is finished. But in spite of that there is growing discontent fueled by social media and more protests with massive crowds.

This was a worthwhile read about a thug and a thief and a very personal account by this journalist who lives in Russia with her children. I found it very informative and learned a lot about Contemporary Russian politics.

2. by Virginia Woolf
Finish date: January 7, 2018
Genre: Non-fiction/feminine essays
Rating: B
Review: "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”

This is the premise of this book of essays by Virginia Woolf. She asks, “why is it that men, and not women, have always had power, wealth, and fame?” She cites two premises: fixed income and one’s own room.

She is sitting on the riverside in front of locked universities and libraries and reflects back in history on the impact and heritage of patriarchal writers and on women’s intellectual independence and their ability to create works of art. A woman must have money and a room of one’s own to write fiction because she requires her space and a stable economic status, free of distractors and stressful situations in order to accomplish that goal. She backs her argument with examples of Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and George Elliot among others.

And in doing so, she wonders how much greater the works of Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters might have been if they had owned a room of their own, and a desk to write in privacy. Today women don’t need to hide their work behind a male pseudonym any longer and are more free to express an opinion and make decisions, but Virginia Woolf in these essays was reaching out to women in a feminist tone to inspire us.

3. by Oliver Sacks
Finish date: January 11, 2018
Genre: Science, non-fiction essays
Rating: A-
Review: This is the final book written by Oliver Sacks and it was published after his August 2015 death by cancer. It was written as a catalyst from a documentary he was in which included 6 scientists in 1993. The issues investigated were the origin of life, the meaning of evolution and the nature of consciousness. All disciplines from all sciences were investigated. This book explored all sciences including Darwin and evolution, botany and psychology. Sacks had a familiarity with literature, medicine since he was a neurologist, botany, animal anatomy, chemistry, the history of science, philosophy and psychology. He worked until his death. This book reveals his ability to make connections in all the sciences and his true knowledge as a scientist and storyteller. Some of these articles, 10 in number, were fairly academic in tone and if not familiar with his prior books or some of these sciences would require definition. (That’s what Google is for.)

Since I love science and studied it, I found them fascinating. His first article dealt with “Darwin and the Meaning of Flowers” in which he discussed Darwin as a botanist and natural selection at work. He states that 70% DNA between humans to plants is unique. He especially loved Orchids. In the article “Speed”, he discusses movement from the wings of insects, the movement of plants and the slowness of the tortoise. He discussed time lapse photography to see movement change. A microscope shows slow motion and a telescope is the speeding up of motion. He discussed martial arts and speed and how drugs are either accelerators or retarders of speed. In “Sentience”, he wrote about the mental life of plants and worms, the light and day behavior of invertebrate minds. Other interesting articles dealt with “The Other Road”, Freud as a Neurologist and the “Fallibility of Memory”. This was about the errors of memory, the distortions, reality and subjective imagination and the use of Functional Brain Imaging. The “Mishearing” article, dealt with alterations in hearing and the perceptions of it that pose as reality. In the “Creative Self”, he discussed the inquisitive mind of a child and the importance of storytelling and mythmaking and the minds of savants and the autistic. How important education is for voracious assimilation of art, film, literature and immersion through reading. In a “General Feeling of Disorder” he discusses homeostasis in the body, the core consciousness of the body and migraines and his melanoma. In “River of Consciousness” he discusses how our motions and actions in time and thoughts flow like a river. They are ever flowing. In “Scotoma: Forgetting and Neglect in Science”, he explores instances of scientific discoveries that were underappreciated or ignored in their time.

In many of these articles Sacks mentions many of the books he wrote which were based on medical cases. I found this book to be a very fitting depiction of Oliver Sacks and his brilliant mind.

4. by Michael Wolff (no photo)
Finish date: January 16, 2018
Genre: Politics/history
Rating: B
Review: I read this book because Trump wanted to stop this book from coming out. That meant I had to read it. Of course, we’ve heard so much about it already on the news but reading the book gives you all of the background information plus more. It was very readable book and gives an overall good portrait of a president in over his head. He did not expect to win the presidency so when he did, he and his staff had to scramble to put together a cabinet and this book shows the executive branch in complete chaos. The profiles of Kushner, Bannon and Conway are well known as well as much of the story told within. But I have to say, what I liked was the gossip. The infighting and leaks were persistent between the more liberal Jared and Ivanka (Jarvanka) factions, versus the Bannonites versus the Preibus (establishmentl RNC factions-Ryan, et al). None of them could work together. It shows us people who are incompetent, ingrates, and with no real knowledge of governance but more focused on backbiting and leaking on one another than passing a legislative agenda.

This book does have misspellings and some name errors and some other inaccuracies but as Wolff stated when asked about this it was due to speeding up the publication and that news changes so fast. Some of the stories may have been embellished but they were based on recorded conversations. It is worth reading to see the incompetence of this White House and the neurotic volatile President in office. This book is useful in seeing Trump’s management style and the power blocs and power struggles at the top of the organization.

5. by Primo Levi
Finish date: January 18, 2018
Genre: memoir/science
Rating: A
Review: The Periodic Table is a memoir in which Levi interweaves the elements of the periodic table with stories about his life or stories told by friends. I found it unique in style and prose. He tells stories from his native Italy to Auschwitz as an anti-Fascist and a Jew. He recounts stories of the Jewish community from which he came, to the stories as a student and a young chemist and the beginning of World War II. He investigates into the nature of the material world. Each chapter is named for a chemical element of the periodic table. He wrote about 21 different elements.

As a Chemist, I found this book to be meaningful and especially fascinating. There are 118 elements but the first 94 exist naturally. (Elements from 95 to 118 have been synthesized in laboratories or nuclear reactors.) Elements are represented in a tabular form and have significance in how they are represented due to their chemical properties. Elements with similar behavior are in the same column. A row is a period. In general within a row, metals are on the left, non-metals are on the right.

The way Levi, interweaves these stories, shows his love for science. I loved his stories of his lab experiences and could relate completely. He told his stories by depicting each element to represent a person, experience or a particular story. Levi recognized how elements usually appear in combinations (as mixtures or compounds) and are rarely in a pure form. He equated life in a similar fashion. Without adulteration or mixtures, there would be no life and no diversity. Racial purity was a concern as the Fascists and Nazis were trying to achieve a purity of races. Jews were threats to this racial purity and so should be eliminated.

The book begins with Argon (Ar), an inert gas incapable of aggregation with elements and so applied to his Jewish family where hostility around them to Jews separated them from the rest of the population. With Gold (Au-aurum), there is the river Dora, which represents youth, joy, life and friendship. The Silver (Ag-argentum) chapter details a reunion of friends at the 25th anniversary of graduation. The element Vanadium (Vn), from the Old Norse “Vanadis” from the goddess Freya, he discusses forgiveness and repentance, a way out of the horrors of the Holocaust. And in the final chapter on Carbon (C), the element of life, he asserts these elements of the periodic table are fundamental to life. Carbon travels from one life form to another and pass on their characteristic to other matter around them. This is what matters.

His thesis states that through matter (not spirit) we can know the universe. With this book, through the gaps where he mentions his other works, he invites us to read them. So like the element carbon, his legacy, his ingenuity and his vision endures.

6. by Celeste Ng
Finish date; January 23, 2018
Genre: fiction, contemporary
Rating: B
Review: Now something on the lighter side, in Celeste Ng’s enjoyable new bestselling novel, we see a suburban town in Cleveland Ohio which appears to be in a well-planned sub division with successful families. Two families intermingle on a daily basis. The Richardson’s with an attorney husband, and Elena the law abiding journalist wife and their 4 very different children. Lexie, the excellent Senior, but rather shallow in demeanor, drives an Explorer, Trip the handsome, fit, non-serious son, a junior who drives a jeep, Moody, the sophomore who rides a bike, and is introspective and emphatic, and the black sheep of the family, Izzy, a Freshman who is always in trouble but feels different from everyone else in the family. The Warrens, move into their rental house. Mia is an artist and single mother, and Pearl is the very intelligent teenage daughter.

Ng delves into the characters of this story until you feel you know them. We see the dysfunctional relationship between Elena and Izzy and the closeness between Pearl and Mia and Izzy’s attachment to Mia. We see a storyline where we see “law abiding” Elena as a not a very likable character who is actually unethical in trying to get to the bottom of a story she is chasing. And in doing so delves into lives and forces the Warrens out. Izzy thinks it’s all unfair. The Warrens had finally made a home and they were the kindest and most sincere people and were driven away by her family. Izzy felt betrayed by her family. She decides to do something. She starts a fire in her house and ignites different rooms and burns the house down and runs away. And this is where the title really comes together and is apt. Mia told Izzy, “Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that too. They start over.”
Izzy will start over somewhere else hoping to find the Warrens and hopefully her family will see the error in their ways and will do so as well.

My goodness - some of you are off to a very good start.

Helga - I will now archive your 2017 thread - it will be in the archival section - it is still open but will be archived.

Thanks, okay. I’m finished with 2017.

Done

Helga, you have some wonderful books on your list. I'm hoping to read The Periodic Table sometime this year. I worked in clinical chemistry in a hospital as my first job out of college years ago so I would be interested in how Levi uses the chemical elements in describing his life.

by Primo Levi

Hi Connie, It was fascinating how he utilized the elements into stories about his life and friends and how he actually explained happenings in the chemistry lab. I'm a Chemist and found the chemistry quite applicable and a neat way to explain ideas for his book. You should like it.

7. by Emily Stone(no photo)
Finish date: January 26, 2018
Genre: Non-fiction/Jewish
Rating: C
Review: This is a Jewish primer with surprising amount of facts about Jewish life, culture and religious practice. There is a lot of Yiddish humor so it makes the book light and engaging. Yiddish is a language that needs to be kept going or it will be extinct. This book is presented in an easy to read format with illustrations and graphs on some of the fun facts and figures and mentions key figures from Saul to Seinfeld, movie producers to bankers, and includes all of the important store merchants who have been Jewish. It is an entertaining book.

8. by Cleveland Sellers (no photo)
Finish date: January 29, 2018
Genre: History/Social justice-race
Rating: B+
Review: The River of No Return is about the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. It is the personal memoir of an insider, an eyewitness, who was in the midst of the rise and fall of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He describes his activism from the time of the sit-ins, demonstrations, and freedom rides in the early ‘60’s. He recounts The Mississippi Freedom Summer (1964), the historic march in Selma, the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, and the murders of civil rights activists. He explains in a most interesting way the history of the SNCC and his dedication to the cause of civil rights and social change.

Cleveland Sellers is from my state of SC and so I was enthralled to listen to him speak about his days in the movement and autograph my book. And I have also had the joy to meet his attorney son, Bakkari Sellers who lives in my city and is quite visible in the DNC and on television. The River of No Return is an acclaimed book and worth reading to understand and perceive the civil rights struggle as seen through the eyes of an activist

Awesome beginning.

Thanks Bentley. Catching up on some books on my list to read.

9. by Chris Matthews
Finish date: January 31, 2018
Genre: Biography/History/Politics
Rating: B+
Review: I found this portrait of Bobby Kennedy to be quite engaging. Chris Matthews, in Bobby Kennedy, Raging Spirit, highlights his life from his childhood in his large and famous family through his years in college, law school and then his own as advisor to his brother Jack and his Attorney General. I really understand Bobby Kennedy in his later years when he came unto himself as impassioned about civil rights, poverty and downtrodden.

I found this book though not as detailed as some to be complete in the telling of Bobby Kennedy’s life and his portrayal of this great man. We see him with many strengths but also as an ideologue in his early life. He was intensely anti-communist and had strong feelings about the law and maintaining order. He also showed his intense feelings with his personal dislikes about figures who wronged him or his brother or family. He became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, though a little late, and entered the 1968 Presidential race to get the US out of Vietnam and to right the injustices of poverty and racial discrimination. Bobby Kennedy was important to history because he was the ramrod that got JFK elected to the Senate and the presidency and pushed him on civil rights. Bobby Kennedy was the one that was fighting segregationists like George Wallace and was out front.

Reading this book is like Chris Matthews says, “a tonic for today”. He had the moral compass that seems to be missing today. He knew right from wrong and he would do the right thing. I recommend this book for someone looking to appreciate leadership, principle and empathy, all qualities of Bobby Kennedy. It is not an in depth book but it gives a good reflection on how he engaged in a career that shaped him and gives a good overview of the chaos in the 1960’s.

You are moving along

FEBRUARY

10. by Margaret Atwood
Finish date: February 2, 2018
Genre: Historical-fiction
Rating: A-
Review: Alias Grace is another very good book by very gifted writer, Margaret Atwood. This book is based on a true story of Grace Marks a 16 year old in 1843 who is arrested with James McDermott for the murder of their employer and his mistress. It was quite a sensational murder in Canada at the time, especially involving a young beautiful woman. McDermott was hanged but Grace was saved by a young lawyer so she spent 30 years incarcerated first in an asylum and later in prison.

Atwood describes the life of Grace and how Dr. Jordan is interested in her case and wanted to prove her innocence and make a name for himself. Through the interviews given, it was found that she had lapses in memory of exactly what happened during the actual murder. Grace’s story to Dr. Jordan is very compelling. It was interesting to read about her life in Ireland, her migration to Canada, her life as a servant, her trial and her life in prison. And through it all, we wonder about her guilt, her sanity and whether she speaks the truth. She is eventually pardoned but even so we wonder about the truth but are glad she was pardoned. This compelling story by an excellent storyteller in Margaret Atwood makes this worthwhile reading.

Will we like it if we liked her Handmaid's Tale?

It's different based on an actual murder case in Canada but yes, you should like it.

11. by Oliver Sacks
Finish date: February 10, 2018
Genre: Neuroscience
Rating: A-
Review: Hallucinations is another book by the well-respected neuroscientist. It is easy to see when reading this book how much he respects his patients and his vast knowledge of this subject and all of neuroscience. In this book one learns that hallucinations don’t just encompass madness, schizophrenia and the use of mind altering drugs but so much more. He gave stories from patients he interviewed with numerous hallucinations such as migraines, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, dementia, medicines and drugs. He also described cases from bereavement, trauma, PTSD that caused flashbacks from man-made violence, and shellshock after World War I.

Sacks regards hallucinations as delusions rather than illusions. They seem real but are simply the brain doing something that causes these perceptions and can be explained in logical ways. The other interesting thing is that hallucinations are not all visual. They can be aural, tactile and even encompass the sense of smell. Hallucinations are so intense to many people that they are real to those who feel them. And in the cases of “holy” experiences those are the kinds one would like to keep.

This was a fascinating book as are all of Sack’s books. When I read them, I always find that he has a way of leaving you astonished at the working of the brain.

12. by John Matteson
Finish date: February 12. 2018
Genre: Pulitzer/Biography
Rating: B+
Review: This Pulitzer Prize winning book was a biography about Louisa May Alcott and her father Bronson Alcott. He was a transcendentalist and part of an inner group of literary greats Thoreau, Emerson, and Hawthorne
Bronson was a philosopher and I sometimes found him difficult to love when he left his family to fend for themselves so he could pursue his dream. Other times it was impossible not to love him when his true spirit came out and he showed his love and affection for his family and surroundings and his ideals. Matteson examines Bronson’s fervent embrace of transcendentalism and the repercussions for the Alcott family. The schools he started that failed and the numerous essays and books. We learn about his period of depression when he considered leaving his family and his rationale to come back to his family and a happier though troubled life and his ability to achieve some professional success.

Louisa’s life was at first limited by the needs of her family and other times by the constraints of her time, though she was independent and a feminist. It was thrilling to read about Louisa’s development as a writer and her sudden fame as a very successful author with Little Women and the trilogy of the book. It was sad to read about her health problems she got when she served in the United States Army during the Civil war which plagued her for the rest of life.

This was a fascinating book and recommended to those who want to read about the many accomplishments of the Alcott’s. The Concord School of Philosophy created by Bronson still stands today and welcomes scholars and Louisa’s books remain classics still read today. The terrific bond between father and daughter was incomparable.

Nice review Helga. I'm looking forward to reading this book soon.

13. by Itzhak Belfer (no photo)
Finish date: February 18, 2018
Genre: memoir/War II
Rating: B
Review: This was a very moving memoir about an orphan who was inspired by his adored teacher, mentor and pediatrician Janusz Korczak in a Polish orphanage during World War II. He describes his life in the orphanage, the teachings by Korczak who established it where they learned about mutual responsibility and caring and living and creating a righteous human society. Korczak was murdered by the Nazis in Treblinka when he refused to leave his children. Itzchak escapes from the Nazis, flees through the Polish forests and ends up in Russia at a work camp and then escapes to immigrate to Israel. Before getting to Israel, he is first deported to a Cypress deportation camp and there he studies art. Once he makes it to Israel, his life is renewed and he gets married and has a son. He commemorates his former teacher, Janusz Korczak, the holocaust and his family.

This is a wonderful retelling of his life and intertwined with quotes and his pictures. He left lasting legacies to his teacher and told a memorable story. This was a memorial to Korczak but also captured his own life filled with obstacles. An interesting read.

14. by Jacqueline Winspear
Finish date: February 19, 2018
Genre: Historical fiction/mystery
Rating: B
Review: Maisie Dobbs is the first of this very good series and takes place during WWI in England. This book details how she got stared as the sign on her door describes, a Psychologist and Investigator. Maisie Dobbs is first a housemaid but quite intelligent. Her benevolent employers find her reading and help her into college at Cambridge. She starts college but World War I breaks out so she becomes a nurse and is sent to the front in France. After the War she completes college and then sets up her own private investigator business. She gets a client that leads to a very interesting case that goes back to her time as a nurse. She investigates this case that has many layers and we also learn about her past.

I found this to be a thoroughly interesting book and will read more in this series.

Nice review Helga. I have enjoyed this series as well.

Thanks Lorna. I will read more of them.

15. by Edward J. Larson
Finish date: February 21, 2018
Genre: Pulitzer/History
Rating: A
Review: Larson’s Pulitzer Prize winning book Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion was a very enlightening book. I really like reading about the conflict between science and religion and getting the true story of this famous “Trial of the Century”.

This book gave a great history of the Scopes Trial or the well-known “Monkey Trial”. He describes the run-up to the trial and the trial and the outcome and what it has meant for American society and American culture. We get an intriguing picture of some of the key players, Clarence Darrow, the defense attorney and John Scopes a young teacher teaching Evolution thrown into the trial as a test case, and Williams Jennings Bryan the attorney for the prosecution and proponent for the emerging Fundamentalist movement. There is a good overview of the evolving status of creationism and evolutionism over the past century, especially in relation to school curriculum and religious revivals. We also learn about the role of the ACLU which was interested in this case on the grounds of civil liberties for education, speech and expression.

There is much court room drama described and thoughts and actions of the locals and the events following the decision. We see the passion people have regarding scientific and religious beliefs. And the debate that still exists today, now the term Intelligent Design is regularly used and debated.

This book is highly recommended for those who have heard the legends of the Scopes trial and for the younger generation who might not have ever heard of it except in passing. It helps to understand history and the path it takes today.

16. by Boris Pasternak
Finish date: February 26, 2018
Genre: Russian classic/historical fiction
Rating: A
Review: This classic Noble Prize winner by Pasternak spans Russia from 1901 with the end of Tsarist Russia and spans through the Bolshevik Revolution and the Civil War (1918-1920) that resulted and into the totalitarian regimes of Lenin and Stalin. The horrors of this time period and the dislocations war and civil war impose on the population is dramatically envisioned. We see the lives destroyed and the cruelty of the times depicted and also the loves and compassions of some of the main characters.

The main characters focused on are complex and varied. They have at least 3 different names which can get confusing. They are Dr Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (physician and poet), some of his friends (Misha Gordon and Nicky Dudorov), his loyal wife Tonya, and the beautiful, emotional, strong Larrisa (Lara) Fyodorovna (the natural, and irrational love of Yuri’s life) and Lara’s husband Pasha Antipova who later reappears as a terrible Red Army officer Strenikov. Originally, Yuri was an enthusiastic humanistic supporter of “regime change” due to all of the poverty around him but as time passed with the Revolution he became a skeptic. The characters are brought into the changes and horrors that arise of Marxism, Bolshevism, Soviet Communism, and The New Economic Policy (NEP) and it was for the author’s criticisms in this novel that it was condemned in Russia.

The story is a human drama which is extremely well written. It is an epic story based around the formation of the Soviet state and goes back and forth between wartime scenes and domestic ones seamlessly. The book ends with 30 pages of beautiful poetry written by the doctor who is seen as a man interested in poetry, philosophy, history, and medicine. It is an enjoyable read that remains with you.

17. by Bart D. Ehrman
Finish date: February 28, 2018
Genre: Religion
Rating: B
Review: This is a very interesting read of the history of textual criticism of the Bible by Ehrman. In this book he recounts how he became a fundamental Christian as a teenager and his enthusiasm that God had inspired the wording of the Bible and protected its texts from all error. To understand the original words led him to study ancient languages, Greek and Latin and also Hebrew and textual criticism. During his studies, he became convinced that there are contradictions and discrepancies in the biblical manuscripts and believed they could not be reconciled. He points out that rather than being inerrant, The New Testament is very much a human book telling stories.

Ehrman quotes some interesting material regarding the transcription and early duplication of the early manuscripts from scribes. Some of these scribes copied it letter by letter without knowing how to read it. With the many copies made many errors were made either by mistake, copy-error or intentional rewording to read better to the scribe or later Christians who had their own motivations personal and political to do so. It was also interesting to read that women were very much involved in the early Church but that it was a later addition and changes in the church that lowered the standards of women and their role in the church.

I found this book and his other books to be worthwhile reading and especially for those interested in analyzing the Bible.

MARCH

18. by Jennifer Egan
Finish date: March 1, 2018
Genre: Pultizer/fiction
Rating: C
Review: This is a Pulitzer Prize book in fiction. It is an interweaving narrative of stories about a few central characters. The “goon” in the title is time. It opens with a quote from Proust, about memory and how we cannot recapture the people we were in the past and the places we were with these people, and that these people live within us. The people in this book are in the music business and they grow up and age.

We learn about the troubled life of Sasha about her life as a pick pocket to her life from a troubled childhood of divorce, as a runaway and college student and self-destruction and finally her marriage, children and redemption. Bennie Salazar is seen as a punk rocker in 1979 and later a record executive. He is divorced and trying to connect with his 9 year old son. He likes to listen to old washed-up bands in his basement. In his early years he had an ability to find musical talent and own a music recording business.

Their lives intermingle and we see how this book interplays time and music, survival, and redemption. This adheres with the main them of aging and sorrow for misspent lives. The most interesting part of this book was the Powerpoint slide presentation that was created by Sasha’s 12 year old daughter. It gave a refreshing viewpoint from the normal narrative of telling a story showing musical pauses, Venn diagrams, Bubble charts and dialogs. Though I have to say, it does not look like what a normal 12 year would be able to do. But the technology from the PowerPoint to the technology that saves the music industry.

This was an okay read but I could not relate with the story in the style it was written. The storyline and characters shifted too much and I couldn’t empathize with the characters in a way that interests me.

Helga, messages 31 and 32 are for the same book. You should probably delete one of them.

19. by Min Jin Lee
Finish date: March 9, 2018
Genre: Historical fiction/Japan
Rating: A
Review: This National Book Award Finalist was a deeply engrossing and well written book. It was a saga of four generations of a Korean family in Japan. There is a lot of history in this book beginning with the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 through World War II, and then Japan after the war until 1989. We follow the family through its s triumphs and failures throughout.

Lee intertwines the personal lives and the political situations taking place extremely well. The story begins with Sunja, the beloved daughter of an invalid father but who is well respected in the community. She has an unplanned pregnancy and can’t marry the father as he is already married with children though she did not know it at the time. She marries a sickly very kind minister so there is no shame on the family and they move to Japan. We see the consequences of their choices and of their children as they experience life as Korean immigrants in an unforgiving country. Lee gives a vivid account with deep emotions as we see the impact of racism, legal and social discrimination and trauma from the war. We see how Sunja fights in every way that she possibly can to ensure a good life for her children. I am moved when I see her son Noa struggle to reclaim his identity in a country he wanted to belong to but finds a country that devalues Korean individuals. These Koreans are called Zainichi. They are ethnic Koreans living in Japan but are essentially stateless. Until recently they had to apply for alien registration cards every 3 years and are considered as 2nd class citizens. For this reason, they were shut out of higher positions. And so, they became Pachinko operators or owners of them. Pachinko is a Japanese arcade game and was considered a typical job for Koreans looking to get ahead, however, the Japanese looked down on them and viewed them as shady and dishonest and just Korean. Sunja’s grandson, Solomon, with a finance degree from the US found negative stereotypes associated with Koreans many years after his grandmother arrived in Japan.

The sad situation we hear about is how after all the hardship and discrimination they endured, after finally earning enough money to have stability, many Korean-Japanese were refused citizenship in Japan but most came from North Korea, a place they could not safely return. Lee so easily shared all of this in this deeply touching book. It was a book in the works for her since 1989 and it became reality after she moved to Korea with her husband in 2007. It was then after many interviews of dozens of Koreans in Japan that she could get this story right. A story of almost 30 years in the making and a well-deserved National Book Award.

20. by Kate Moore
Finish date: March 10, 2018
Genre: History/Science
Rating: A
Review: This was such a highly emotional book for me. It makes you cry reading it. The Radium Girls were the women in the roaring 20’s who worked in radium dial industries. They were subjected to massive amounts of radium (discovered by the Curies in 1898) while they worked there. They would Lip..dip..paint with their brushes and ingest it by painting dials on watches and clocks. Then they would encounter it by getting flakes of dry radium powder all over them. They were never warned of the dangers of radium toxicity even though it was known by this time. They were told instead that it was safe for them and would give them rosy cheeks. Then they got sick. The effects of radiation takes years to start building in the body and because of that, it was at first hard to prove that it was indeed the radium causing these women to get sick and die.

In the 1920’s there weren’t many laws protecting workers and the US government didn’t interfere with companies. Things started to change when the girls started dying of horrific deaths in their 20’s. Doctors didn’t know what it was and tried different things to no avail. Radium like some other radioactive elements started leaching the bones and deteriorating them so the teeth would decay and jaws would break and fall out and they would become crippled and unable to walk. Then they would develop sarcomas and become anemic.

The women started to seek truth and justice once they found out it was the radium killing them. They found doctors and lawyers to help them uncover the truth and to eventually gain justice against these companies and get laws enacted to protect the workers. It is a compelling read.

21. by Arnold Breman (no photo)
Finish date: March 16, 2018
Genre: Memoir/Performing arts
Rating: A
Review: Laughter in the Wings is a memoir by Breman that I found to be very entertaining and will be reminiscent for the baby boom generation. I was introduced to him in my community recently when he gave a presentation and found him so interesting that I had to read his book. He is now retired in my city of Columbia, SC and is on the advisory council of the S.C Philharmonic. Breman spent nearly half a century directing American performing arts centers from the Elmira in NY to the Clearwater Florida and Palm Beach Florida performing arts centers.

Arnold Breman, a Jewish boy from Brooklyn was dragged form playing stickball and forced to endure Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts at Carnegie Hall to opening a theater at 19 years old with an order to fill it with an African American audience from the surrounding neighborhood. His first presentation was Duke Ellington. This was followed by star after star for 50 years in 4 performing arts centers. He worked with more than 2000 artists and attractions including BB King, Ella Fitzgerald, Ethel Merman, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, Leonard Nimoy, Liza Minnelli, Cary Grant, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly, Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis, Jr, Cab Calloway, Milton Berle, Harry Connick Jr, The Monkees, Itzhak Perlman, Linda Ronstadt and many others. After directing the Arts Centers, he served as the Executive Director of the Joffrey Ballet in New York and Chicago.

This book highlighted humorous and entertaining backstage stories of many of these performers. It is a story of crowd pleasers who left their audiences dazzled and the managers in frazzles. Breman wrote this book with candor and laughter. Breman’s wife, Linda, and his children encouraged him to write this book and the sequel to follow. The baby boom generation will find this book interesting. There are so many performers we will know and recognize with nostalgia.

22. by Liaquat Ahamed
Finish date: March 19, 2018
Genre: History/Economics/Pulitzer
Rating: A
Review: In this Pulitzer Prize winning book, Lords of Finance, we have a narrative about four bankers from the period between World War I and what lead to the Great Depression in 1929 and the aftermath through World War II. I found this to be a very interesting book about this topic. It was clearly written by a banker who understands central banking. We learn about the formation of the Federal Reserve Bank and the later formation of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to assist in helping other countries in times of crisis as happened in the past as a result of the Great Depression.

The four bankers, Montague Norman from Bank of England and one of the most influential bankers, Benjamin Strong head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York formed in 1911, Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank and Émile Moreau from the Banque de France all interact and are the Central Bankers responsible for the cash flow that affected commerce, the establishment of the gold standard, credit lending and cash reserves. They also see their role as trying to restore and maintain a gold backed currency until the economy crashes. The author explains well how the gold standard works and why the bankers thought it was important.

We understand in this book just how ruinous WWI was, how reparations damaged Germany and hyperinflation started it. America aggravated the issue with the stock market bubble and then the crash rocked Europe. The ensuing bank failures and the economy tanked which resulted in the Great Depression. We learn a little of the backgrounds of the bankers but mostly see their interactions with each other as central bankers and their inability to avert the crisis which was not all in their control. We also see other economists like Keynes and his viewpoints.

I really enjoyed this book because of the narrative and the interactions of the four bankers and learned the financial history surrounding the Great Depression. I found it easy to read and understand and worth reading.

Good progress Helga

Thank you, Bentley.

23. by Helen Simonson
Finish date: March 21, 2018
Genre: Fiction/British
Rating: A
Review: I loved this book about the retired widowed Major Ernest Pettigrew and the Pakistani shop keeper Mrs Ali. It takes place in a cozy Sussex English village. We see clashes of modern life between the generations, social classes and religions and cultures. It is portrayed from the view of the aging Major who is very proper and conservative in his values and well respected in the community.

A romance blossoms between the Major and Mrs Ali who have come together by a love of literature and loneliness. He is faced by the issues from the past and we see the English-Pakistani relationship that ensues with the prejudices in the community and the difficult colonial past of both countries. It is all written in an insightful way that is also tactful.

I read this book because it came recommended and am glad I did. Simonson has written a well written and engaging novel that is easy to get involved with and enjoy.

Helga wrote: "23. by Helen Simonson
Finish date: March 21, 2018
Genre: Fiction/British
Rating: A
Review: I l..."

Great review Helga. This one is on my to-read list, your review inspires me to move it up in priority.

24. by Stephen Hawking
Finish date: March 22, 2018
Genre: Memoir/Physics
Rating: B
Review: My Brief History was a brief memoir by Hawking. It was written not as a long detailed autobiography but a brief history of his life which included pictures which I liked. It includes a little bit about his parents, childhood, education-preparatory school and college, his marriage, children and his career which detailed his areas of interest in astrophysics. He also detailed a bit about working around his disability.

In this book, I found he had a sense of humor and would make bets with peers about cosmology and always paid his bets. He was married twice but always spoke well of his family as he knew how difficult it was for them to take care of him with his disability. He claimed he pursued theoretical physics because he wasn’t good at math and it was too difficult for him to do experimental work.

This was a good introduction about the life of this brilliant scientist who lived for 56 years with ALS a disability he was only to survive with for a few years. His passion for science and his ambition to achieve success in spite of his disability makes his life inspiring. It could have been a bit longer but when one realizes that he could only write 3 words a minute every chapter is priceless. More adept biographers can write a longer narrative with much more detail.

Good job Helga - Thank you for your cooperation

25. by Charles Dickens
Finish date: March 28, 2018
Genre: Classics/Historical fiction
Rating: A
Review: This was a reread of this classic by Dickens. I liked it just as much as the first time many years ago. Once you get into it, after the first few chapters it got really interesting. The most memorable parts of this book that make it so meaningful were the first quote of the book and the ending quote which I still remembered more than 30 years later. There is so much symbolism in this book and foreshadowing of events to come.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness ... it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair” And so A Tale of Two Cities begins.

This book has an intriguing cast of characters that drift in and out of this book. It takes place in London England and Paris France during the Revolution. We get hints in chapters of happenings to come and as we read we need to pay close attention to how the many characters are connected. A few of them are Dr Manette who had been imprisoned in the Bastille for 18 years, his angelic daughter Lucie, Charles Darnay (Evremonde), the man she loved and married but was born of gentile blood so was doomed for the sins of the father. We have the evil character of Madame Defarge, a portrait of complete malevolence, and persona out to kill even the innocent child born of them and leading character in the “Reign of Terror” and the Guillotine. Then we have Sydney Carton, the ultimate martyr for the family.

This is a highly moral story with the themes of vengeance versus forgiveness, sins of the father visited on the children, forgiveness and redemption through a stunning act of self-sacrifice.

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

Beautiful review Helga of one of my all-time favorite and beloved books. I have it on my list to read again as well.

Good progress Helga

26. by Arnie "Tokyo" Rosenthal (no photo)
Finish date: March 29, 2018
Genre: Memoir
Rating: B+
Review: Our Last Seder was a moving memoir depicting an event that happened in Rosenthal’s young life that changed him and his family forever. It takes place in the early 1960’s on Long Island. The author is depicted as middle-class, Jewish and lives a suburban life. He recently discussed this book in person (in my town) and explained how his life experiences led him to write this memoir.

He states: Tragedy always hits when we least expect it. For Arnie the unthinkable became reality. For him it was after a family Seder when everyone was back home and he was wakened by his parents about the tragedy that occurred when his twin cousins were killed in a fire and the housekeeper escaped through a window to seek help and the house burned down.

In this book he tells of his introduction into morality, the consequences that follow and how he and his family got through their life-altering tragedy. It is quite personal and insightful.

He has had various careers, including Cable TV Executive (with Financial News Network and Score), TV sports commentator, and today he is an accomplished singer-songwriter and author. Rosenthal now resides in Chapel Hill NC.

Great - thank you Helga - already this year - you have 60 unique goodreads members who are reading your reviews and thread

Thank you Bentley.

27. by Ragnar Jónasson
Finish date: March 30, 2018
Genre: Fiction/crime/Nordic noir
Rating: B
Review: Snowblind is a dark crime novel that takes place in the northern region of Iceland and is the first in a series by author Ragnar Jónasson. The setting takes place in the dark of winter in an old fishing village, called Siglufjordur which is snowy and claustrophobic. It is very close to the Arctic Circle. The imagery of Iceland is impressive and really conveys the atmosphere and sets the scene of this story.

Ari Thor is the new recently qualified police officer, who accepts this as his first position. He is an outsider in a town where everyone knows everyone. It is supposed to be a peaceful and dull place where little happens. That changes when a young woman is found half naked and bleeding in the snow, and an old esteemed author is discovered dead at the local amateur theater. Ari becomes plunged into the investigations and has definite questions if they are accidents or murder. There could be a list of suspects and we learn about the large cast of characters as he investigates them.

This is not a fast action thriller if you’re looking for that, but an overall well written crime novel with mystery and suspense in a dark and somber setting, typical Nordic noir. I found it to be a unique police procedural that kept my interest throughou