Don > Recent Status Updates

A daily reminder, organized by calendar year date, to ‘be here now,’ ‘manage my expectations,’ and ‘act within the domains that I control, but act!’ All couched with an opening quotation (and citation) from a seminal Greek Stoic source. Each elaborated in a 1-2 page explanatory meditation.
I look forward to each new day’s reminder.

Harry Bosch and returned partner, Ignacio Ferris, are at it again, with a murder in a liquor store that Bosch has had previous history. The book sets up well in the first 50 pages. …

But, hold the presses! A library book has just come in that will leave in 14 days. I’m choosing, reluctantly, to put Harry aside while I indulge in the world of the spies. I’ll be back at this one shortly!

I read the first few chapters and then fell into The Reformation (Diarmaid MacCulloch). I’ll be back sometime, but, for now my mind has been absorbed elsewhere.

What wonderful writing (I don’t read French. I’m being carried away by the engaging tone of the translation by Sian Reynolds, published in 1988).

Braudel focuses clearly and consistently on the process by which “France” and “French identity” spreads, drawing on the details of history, prehistory, linguistics, and cultural anthropology of the region called “France” in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Still sorting out the plot threads and getting to know the characters when who should step onto the stage without fanfare or pre-set expectation? Well if it ain’t ole Windsor Thorne Lockheed III!!

The current section pairing Montaigne and Pascal (with a touch of T. S. Eliot) regarding reason vs. irrationality, virtue vs. an inevitably morally flawed irrationality, and celebration vs. despair if such a flawed humanity is found to be the state of things - this section in itself strikes me as worth the price of admission! Really enjoying the book!

Loved Section 1. Paused while reading some other books. I’ll be back, for sure.

Enjoying it about 4 chapters in. Pausing due to arrival of Woodward and Costa’s Peril, into which I’m about to plunge.

I can’t wait until I’ve completed The Invention of Nature to express how stimulating it is to read this wonderful work! I want to be Alexander Von Humboldt when I grow up, and, failing that, I want to be able to capture and convey such an outstanding portrayal of brilliance and its context as has Andrea Wulf! What a joy to be reading this book! Thank you, Andrea Wulf!

Tragedies 1&2, Things Fall Apart and No Longer At Ease, completed. Both excellent in reflecting the points of view and tragic experiences of distinct generations of colonized, culturally dominated Nigerians under British rule, but presenting well, too, the challenges of contending with the continuing influence of traditional values and expectations. On to Arrow Of God, the third published novel of this trilogy.

Completed Things Fall Apart - the incursion of colonial power from the point of view of an indigenous leader-to-be. The ‘weak’ colonial face links with the tribe’s own marginal folks creating challenges to Okonkwo’s emergence as a leader. The confrontation is unavoidable; the result inevitable.
An Igbo perspective on experiencing the indigene/colonial confrontation. Tragically satisfying.

Gripping! Agonizing! Maddening! And I’m only through p. 118.
A myriad of poor decisions based on faulty or incomplete information, lies and hidden truths, political pressures and deference to uninformed superiors. Heroism during disaster, front-line people and first-responders carrying on as their bodies are being poisoned by radiation. Denial clouding everything. Whew!

Picked out of a neighborhood sharing ‘library box,’ in Silver Spring, MD, Cliff Janeway as principal investigator/character - former cop, now book dealer - struck me as my kinda guy! Giving it a whirl ...

Setting this aside, as I find myself no longer engaged and wanting to move on.

This is my "ebook while waiting." After reading the intro materials and the first debate end-to-end, I'm happy to read the rest in increments, over time. It's fantastic! Oh, to have had such articulate argument (and pointedly witty asides) in our own recent Presidential campaign!