Books I’m Reading
December 2011:
I finally finished my latest book, “Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson. I think this is one of the books Linda gave me a while back. The main character is a Methodist Minister who is the father of a young son. The minister, his young wife and child live in a small town that has seen much suffering from the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl of the 1930′s, and the loss and love of families past and present. The book is written by the minister, a diary from father to son, his hopes that his words will be read when his son is much older. It was an interesting book. I found myself ending the last page and transitioning back to the first page, ready to read it again. I love when that happens.
September 2011:
When I was in West Virginia this month, my Aunt gave me Taylor Caldwell’s “Captains and the Kings” that she had just completed reading. It was a popular book in the early 70′s, but I don’t think I read it back then. I was too engrossed in Hesse, Dante, Gibran, Kerouac, Vonnegut, and John Irving – and of course, our hometown favorite (except for my own mother!), Jayne Ann Phillips. But, this book was pretty good. It reminds me of the current trilogy by Ken Follett who walks through the early centuries, sharing the highs and lows of life among the peasants and their masters.
The author’s vocabulary was amazing – I had to keep the dictionary very close! The book itself was engaging and well researched! It leaves the reader unsure as the line between truth and fiction remains a conundrum to this reader. How many of you often wonder at the possibility that only a small group of people rule the world? ”Many of them had sons in government, industry the Navy or Army, or in the professions. Some of them were openly known as impressive financiers, especially in America where the possession of wealth was regarded as akin to holiness, and in Zurich, where the same opinion prevailed. But none really knew what they were, except themselves. They controlled interest in almost all the important newspapers, and editors, directed editorial policy. They were the real owners of publishing houses, of magazines, of all the media that guided public information. They were the ones who really appointed the Cabinets of Presidents, and the Ministers to government in nearly all other countries. They controlled elections, built up their candidates, financed them, everywhere in the world. Any presumptuous or intrepid man who did not meet with their approval was lampooned in the press, discreetly libeled, or “exposed.” The politicians, themselves, were often quite unaware of who had advanced or destroyed them…”
Give it a read – it’s worth it!
April 2011:
I have been reading Three Cups of Tea. I picked it up when my friend and I flew to Long Beach to see Jayne Anne at the Long Beach Festival of Authors. It has taken a while to get through it for some reason – namely, because I fall asleep before I can get through more than 5 or 6 pages! So, yesterday I read that someone is now debunking his story. There were many times that I questioned the story, not because I know anything about the truth, but just the way it was presented – too much embellishment of the writing style and other things. But, regardless, it was an OK story. I believe that anyone who has built ONE school for children living in poverty, war zones, remote villages, or otherwise, has done a good deed! Children everywhere deserve to learn, especially women and girls who happen to have been born into a region, culture and religion that does not promote equality for women. So, I will finish the book and move on to another one. Onward and upward!
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February 2011: I am halfway through “The Zookeeper’s Wife.” It takes place during the Nazi regime in Warsaw, Poland. The writing captures the lives of Jan and Antonina Zabinski, their young son Rys, and thousands of men, women and children who escaped capture via the zoo’s underground railroad that assured a safe passage out of Poland during the war. There are moments of extreme joy and sadness, one of which occurs when a group of Nazi soldiers use the zoo for target practice, killing many of the deer and bison; adversely, a tale of a famous etymologist whose collection still exists in Warsaw. The historical nature of the book is presented in a comforting way, but as we know from history, a war not easily forgotten. We humans tend to think mainly of human casualties – children, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, grandparents and friends, but rarely about the animals that are obliterated by bombs and other atrocious acts of war. I remember reading about the lack of bird songs after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Silence. Deafening. So, back to the book I go.
I am still trying to find time to read! My running group and work is keeping me busy! I have always “enjoyed” reading the historical accounts of the Holocaust, but it is always very hard to read – my heart aches and my mind wants to turn away, but I know that is not going to provide me with knowledge, so I continue to read and look for the bravery and heroics of those who stood grounded during one of the most abominable crimes of humanity. So many people hiding their friends in underground tunnels, and fear so very near that people draw upon their animal nature to survive. There are so many brave people in the world who face tyranny and possible death, putting themselves last, caring more about others than life itself. The story of Henryk Goldszmit, pen name, Janusz Korczak, is one such person. His story is so uplifting and heartbreaking that it is hard to share the whole story. I will leave the reading up to you. He left his profession as a pediatrician and his literary career to open an orphanage in Warsaw. When the children of the orphanage were forced to live in the Ghetto while they waited for their orders to the death camps, Henryk taught them many things about justice and life and courage and truth, and much of this captured in the book he produced at night while the children slept. Once the move to the death camps was dictated, he refused to escape or leave the children behind, and instead, went with them to Treblinka because he knew his presence would calm the children. When describing the children walking into the death chambers, Joshua Perle reported, “A miracle occurred, two hundred pure souls, condemned to death, did not weep. None of them ran away. None tried to hide. Like stricken swallows they clung to their teacher and mentor, to their father and brother, Jausz Korczak.” As a result of this amazing man, “In 1971, the Russians named a newly discovered asteroid after him, 2163 Korczak. The Polish people considered him a martyr, the Israelis revere him as one of the “Thirty-Six Just Men,” whose pure souls make possible the world’s salvation.” It is a powerful story, and one worth reading.
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January 2011: I am reading Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel. She is the author of “Longitude,” a book that I have not read and will most likely read once I finish this one. I like the historical nature of this book and I have learned things about Galileo that I never knew. I cringe at the antics of the Roman Catholic Church and their attempts to squash any belief in the heliocentric view that placed the Sun at the center of the universe. The parallel story that highlights Galileo’s daughter’s lives as nuns is equally harsh. I am only halfway through the book but I am definitely engrossed in the story. I also hope to find and read “The Dialogue” as the structure of his writing was so very clever, using three characters who shared their discussions over a four day period, two of which are philosophers, one arguing for the Copernican view, the other arguing for the views of Aristotle and Ptolemy, and the third person being a “laymen” who tries to find balance among them. I probably already knew much of this but I sure have forgotten it over the years! More to come when I get to the end! Well, I finally finished reading this book – it took much more time than usual due to other pressing events. So, I don’t think I will ever find “The Dialogue…” but I will definitely keep trying. The fact that Galileo was under “house arrest” for the remainder of his life was unbelievable in today’s society, yet, much the norm in the 1600′s. The good thing is Galileo, and the other masters of the universe, were obviously correct – at least for another 100 years or so (give or take a century!). I must admit, I continue to wonder why “Kings” and “Governments” need to control, but they do, and that topic will, undoubtedly, find its way into this space at some point in time. “Be Free, Be Free….”
